Benzema urges France to keep improving

8 September 2012 16:07

France striker Karim Benzema was left delighted with his team's 1-0 victory over Finland in their World Cup qualifier on Friday.

The Real Madrid striker played a key role in France's win as he set up Abou Diaby for the only goal of the game.

Benzema, whose team face Belarus on Tuesday in their second Group I encounter, feels he is slowly starting to hit top form again.

"We need to continue in this vein. Both in attack and in defence, we started very well and we opened the scoring early," Benzema told the Ligue 1 website.

"We were less good in the second half but we rolled up our sleeves and fought hard.

"I'm very happy to have set up Abou Diaby. For me, an assist is the same as scoring.

"I felt good out there. I'm starting to come back, get stronger, but the most important thing is that everyone played well tonight.

"It was a good game against a good team that defended very well and also tackled pretty hard. There were some moments when we struggled, but we held on and we won."