France scored a 2-0 victory over Ukraine to take the top position in Group B in the Euro 2008 qualifying tournament, following a one-sided contest at the sell-out Stade De France on Saturday night.

The Les Bleus now have 15 points while Ukraine and Scotland are on 12 from six games each.

Franck Ribery and Nicoas Anelka scored the goals in the second half after the hosts failed to translate their domination of the first half into goals.

France made an attacking start with Liverpool-target Florent Malouda and Bolton striker Anelka, who is reportedly in Manchester United link, looking busy.

The Les Bleus worked like a well oiled machine as they raided the Ukrainians, who missed their ace striker Andriy Shevchenko following his hernia operation, with regularity.

Young Marseille midfielder Samir Nasri, who has taken the place of retired legend Zidane, asserted himself in the early moments of the match but his shots were wide of the mark.

The visitors however came close to scoring on a free-kick with a curling in-swinger from left seeing Andriy Rusol not reaching high enough to meet the delivery while Volodymyr Yezerskiy failed to connect with the ball on a sliding effort as the French defence looked disorganised.

Liverpool-bound striker Andriy Voronin had a go at Gregory Coupet’s goal from 25 yards but the ball was always on the up missing the target in the 20th minute..

Ukraine, who had come to life with a dominating spell of five minutes or so, then saw a header from Taras Mykhalyk bouncing off the turf but not evading Coupet from a corner delivery.

France missed a glorious chance to take the lead when Malouda’s low corner-kick made its way past the struggling defence to Anelka, whose header however was wide of the target with only Olexandr Shovkovskiy in the goal to beat.

20-year-old Nasri, who was playing his second match for France, just showed why he is considered a right man to step into Zidane role, curling a free-kick on target from 30-35 yards but Shovkovskiy was in the right position to make a comfortable catch.

France camped inside the rival half there after with decent build-up play involving Nasri, Malouda, who shifted flanks, Anelka and Ribery as Ukraine rallied behind.

Ribery, who is a hot target for speculation with Real Madrid being linked, was brought down by Andriy Nesmachniy to give away a free-kick on the right wing at the half-hour mark. Lyon ace Malouda let go a fine delivery but it had just a bit more flight to it and didn’t trouble the keeper.

Shovkovskiy charged out of his position to make a timely punch as France had built up a sharp move with Nasri and Malouda involved after Gallas had provided the initial thrust.

Ribery had a crack from a long way out from the rival box but failed to keep the ball down, after another fine approach play from the Les Bleus.

Towards the end of the first half, Oleg Blokhin’s side wasted a fantastic opportunity to take the lead after Oleg Gusev escaped an off-side trap from right wing to cut inside and cross but Francois Clerc made a good challenge. However, France failed to clear the ball to safety and the lurking Mykhalyk could not keep his shot on target.

Ukraine missed another chance minutes later with Gusev failing to capitalise on a fine pass of Voronin.

After being kept out by Shovkovskiy with fine saves since the start of the second half, France finally managed to open their score in the 57th minute as Marseille’s Ribery beautifully controlled a ball from Chelsea’s Claude Makelele, and getting past the rival keeper, slammed the ball home for his second international goal.

Anelka made it 2-0 for France and reached 10 international goals, after the Bolton man showed great skills to control an assist from Malouda in the 71st minute and find the back of the net from the box. It was his third goal in as many matches in the qualifying tournament.

Ribery missed the target by a whisker towards the latter stages of the match.

France: Gregory Coupet, Eric Abidal, Francois Clerc, William Gallas, Lilian Thuram, Claude Makelele, Florent Malouda, Samir Nasri (Lassana Diarra 80), Jeremy Toulalan, Nicolas Anelka (Djibril Cisse 75), Franck Ribery.

Substitutes: Mickael Landreau, Julien Escude, Sebastien Squillaci, Alou Diarra, Lassana Diarra, Djibril Cisse, Sidney Govou

Ukraine: Olexandr Shovkovskiy, Dmytro Chygrynskyy, Andriy Nesmachniy, Andriy Rusol, Volodymyr Yezerskiy (Yevgeni Levchenko 78), Olexi Gay, Oleg Gusev, Maxim Kalinichenko (Ruslan Rotan 64), Taras Mykhalyk, Anatoliy Tymoschuk, Andriy Voronin (Vorobey 71).

Substitutes: Maxim Startsev, Oleg Shelayev, Vladislav Vashchuk, Yevgeni Levchenko, Serhiy Nazarenko, Ruslan Rotan, Andriy Vorobey