International friendly: France 4 Ukraine 1

Martin Martin’s brace in a barrage of late goals saw France thrash Ukraine 4-1 in an international friendly in Donetsk on Monday.

After a scoreless first 45 minutes at the Donbass Arena, hosts Ukraine took the lead through a goal from Anatoliy Tymoschuk six minutes into the second half.

The Bayern Munich midfielder struck a speculative long-range effort, which swerved in flight, wrong-footing Marseille’s Steve Mandanda in the France goal and making it 1-0 to Ukraine.

Just six minutes later, Kevin Gameiro announced his arrival on the international scene.

The Lorient striker lashed in a half-volley equaliser from just inside the box, with his first goal in a France shirt drawing the visitors level at 1-1.

France coach Laurent Blanc introduced heavy weights Florent Malouda, Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema just after hour mark.

They were soon joined by more regulars in Abou Diaby and Eric Abidal.

But with the match meandering towards a draw, it took a moment of inspiration from Sochaux’s Martin to tip the balance in France’s favour.

The 23-year-old, who came off the bench for his international debut in the 76th minute, unleashed a spectacular strike from distance that flew past Andriy Pyatov at the Shakhtar goalkeeper’s near post.

Two minutes later, Tottenham centre-back Younis Kaboul rose completely unmarked inside the six-yard box to head France 3-1 in front.

And, not content with winning the match in his first appearance for France, Martin added a well-taken second to make it 4-1 two minutes into injury time.

The emphatic scoreline will come as some relief to Blanc, after his side were held to an uninspiring 1-1 draw away to Belarus in their Euro 2012 qualifier on Friday.