French clean sheet fails to divert Blanc’s anger away from defenders

Karim Benzema scored twice and Franck Ribery and Jeremy Menez were also on target as Les Bleus extended their unbeaten streak to 21 games with a commanding performance in Le Mans.

There were moments of concern for the hosts, however, with Estonia enjoying several chances to open the scoring.

Blanc insists those scares were all self-inflicted, and called on his back four of Mathieu Debuchy, Adil Rami, Philippe Mexes and Patrice Evra to raise their game.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush. Our defence was not good enough,” said Blanc.

“It was an easy game, very easy... I said to them, ‘This is not your day – the team is dominating out there and yet we’re getting ourselves in trouble’.

“You have to understand that it wasn’t the opposition that was causing us problems. We have to have a long, hard think about what happened out there.

“The most important thing, whether you’re playing up front, in midfield or in defence, is to play simple.

“We didn’t do that in the first half and we found ourselves in trouble. They need to improve – all four defenders.”

France open their campaign against England on Monday.

France’s run of form since Blanc took over at the start of the qualification campaign for Poland and Ukraine has many tipping them as dark horses for the title.

But Bayern Munich midfielder Ribery – who has scored in his last three internationals – is refusing to look any further than his side’s Group D programme, which also includes matches against Sweden and co-hosts Ukraine.

“We all want to go as far as possible in the Euros, but the aim is to get past the group stage. We mustn’t rush into this game against England,” said Ribery, who is forming a productive partnership with striker Benzema.