France 3 - Ukraine 0

Photo by Franck Fife

The final European qualifier for the 2014 FIFA World Cup took place in Saint-Denis today as Ukraine were in town to take on France.  Ukraine held a 2-0 advantage from the first leg four days prior.  Mathieu Valbuena was given the start over Samir Nasri at right winger for France, and that made a world of difference from the first leg.  Valbuena stood over a free kick from the right side midway through the opening stanza.  His dipping ball was meekly cleared upfield to Franck Ribery, who fired a heavy shot to the low corner.  Ukraine goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov made the initial save, but France centerback Mamadou Sakho, only playing due to a red card suspension to Laurent Koscielny, was there for the tap-in on the rebound.  France were unjustly sanctioned for offside on a goal scored by Karim Benzema after scoring on a cross by Ribery.  In an apparent makeup call, the wrong was righted.  Benzema was clearly in an offside position when a Yohan Cabaye (pictured, blue) shot from distance bounced off his teammate Valbuena and into his path five yards from goal.  Both calls were wrong, but the end result was correct: one goal for Benzema, one offside infraction, 2-0 lead to France.  Mathieu Debuchy prevented the score from becoming 2-1 as he blocked a shot from Andriy Yarmolenko with his goalkeeper beaten.  France went into the locker room ahead 2-0 on the day and level on the aggregate scoreboard at 2-2.

Ukraine knew a goal of their own would force France to score twice due to the road-goals tiebreaker.  However, Ukraine lost Yevhen Khacheridi to his second yellow card in minute 47 after a late tackle on Ribery.  Ukraine were down to ten men and would have to struggle to keep the 2-2 aggregate scoreboard tied.  Ukraine were very cautious going forward, so France had the majority of possession.  With less than twenty minutes to go, France made their man advantage pay off.  Off a heavy rebound surrendered by Pyatov, Paul Pogba laid off for Ribery.  Ribery sent a fast cross toward the back post for a waiting Sakho.  Oleg Gusev did his best to keep Sakho from the finish, but unfortunately for Gusev he only managed to score an own goal to put Ukraine down 3-0.  France were able to see the clean sheet through to the finish and begin the celebrations before their home crowd.  France win 3-0 to completely overturn their two-goal deficit on the aggregate scoreboard.  France win the tie 3-2 to advance to Brasil 2014.  Ukraine are the final European team eliminated from the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Goals
France
Mamadou Sakho 22
Karim Benzema 34
Oleg Gusev 72 OG

Match Reports:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/france-3-ukraine-0-didier-deschamps-hails-les-bleus-after-magical-comeback-to-qualify-for-world-cup-2014-8951042.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24907601
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/10459597/France-3-Ukraine-0-agg-3-2-match-report.html
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=2225271/index.html

Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2mokdgonZ4