European champions France overcame their sadness and a strong challenge to tame Turkey 3-2 on Thursday and qualify for the Confederations Cup final.

The game was played in a very emotional atmosphere after Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe collapsed and died during his side's 1-0 victory over Colombia in the first semi-final in Lyon.

Several France players, like striker Sidney Govou, goalkeeper Gregory Coupet and even coach Jacques Santini, were friends of Foe, who wore the colours of French league side Olympique Lyon before joining Manchester City last season.

Following their win, France will defend their title against the African champions in the final in Paris on Sunday.

Even though they were without inspirational Zinedine Zidane, France produced their best performance since they were eliminated in the first round of the last year's World Cup.

However, if they ended the match with a collective smile, they certainly began it with tears in their eyes as a minute's silence was observed for Foe before the playing of the national anthems.

France went ahead with a close-range goal by striker Thierry Henry in the 11th minute and he then set up his Arsenal team mate Robert Pires for the second.

Turkey, however, reduced the deficit through midfielder Gokdeniz Karadeniz in the 41st minute.

Another Arsenal man, Sylvain Wiltord, hit back two minutes later to give the European champions a 3-1 advantage at the interval.

Turkey, who eliminated world champions Brazil in the group stage, moved up a gear in the second half and striker Tuncay Sanli volleyed their second in the 48th minute.

Three minutes from time, they were given the perfect chance to equalise when Olivier Dacourt was ruled to have fouled Alpay Ozalan in the box, but Okan Yilmaz dragged his penalty wide. 

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