It hasn’t happened for 20 years but France are now facing the very real prospect of missing out on a major tournament after they went down 2-0 to Ukraine on a night where Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny was sent off and nothing went right for the former World Cup winners.
The chastising night has left Didier Deschamp’s side with it all to do in Paris on Tuesday, with bwin now going 19/50 that Ukraine qualify for the World Cup in Brazil, making France a 19/10 shot. New customers that register today can use their free £20 bet and net £58 in returns if the French manage to turn things around.
Over the last few years, we have been used to France’s footballing implosions taking place on the biggest stage, but in a result that might have some of England’s harshest critics revaluating their stance, Ukraine head to Paris on Tuesday in the kind of commanding position coach Mykhaylo Fomenko can only have dreamed of when the draw was made last month.
Not since failure to qualify for USA 94 under Gerard Houllier have Les Blues missed out on the big footballing occasions, and having won the World Cup in 1998 and finished runners-up in 2006, Deschamps is in danger of overseeing the end of steep decline.
Having opted to bench Karim Benzema and play Arsenal forward Olivier Giroud alone up front, France were once again toothless in attack and went down to second half goals from Roman Zozulya and, from the penalty spot, Andriy Yarmolenko as a bold Ukraine made the most of a vociferous atmosphere to secure a healthy first leg lead.
France are as short as 2/5 to win inside 90 minutes when the sides reconvene in midweek, with the draw at 18/5 and Ukraine a big-looking 13/2 to secure qualification with a win.
France have drifted in the outright betting to 50/1 after the defeat, while despite the victory Ukraine are as big as 150/1 to life the World Cup next summer.
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