France became the first ever European team to come back from a 2-0 first-leg deficit to reach the World Cup as they earned a thrilling 3-0 victory over Ukraine in Paris. Liverpool's Mamadou Sakho scored a goal in each half and Karim Benzema also scored in between. Ukraine's Yevhen Khacheridi was sent off early in the second half and that has made the task a lot easier for the French. They were leading 2-0 at that point and Ukraine were only hoping to push the match into extra time after the dismissal.
France started with huge determination and Mathieu Valbuena, Paul Pogba and Benzema all went close to scoring in the first 20 minutes of the match. They finally broke the deadlock through Sakho on a Valbuena free kick, goalkeeper Pyatov stopped Ribery's shot but Sakho pounced on the rebound and pushed it home. The onslaught continued as Pogba fired over before Benzema found the back of the net on 34 minutes.
Ukraine came very close to clawing one back when Mathieu Debuchy blocked Andriy Yarmalenko's goal-bound shot with the goalkeeper beaten. After the break Khacheridi received his second yellow card and things seemed all set for the French fightback. Benzema squandered a great chance as he fired over from 10 yards but defender Sakho did a lot better to smash it home from a Franck Ribery cross.
France reach the World Cup but they are not among the top favourites to win it, they are 20/1 at Bet365 to claim the coveted trophy.
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