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WCup qualification unites France
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The simple headline in big, bold letters on the front page of sports daily L’Equipe summed it up best: “Respect.”
After France overturned a two-goal deficit to qualify for the World Cup with a 3-0 win over Ukraine, the local press united in praise of the national team.
Written off by a scathing media, France somehow found the resources to produce its best performance in many years in a passionate atmosphere at Stade de France. “This will stay with us for life,” France winger Franck Ribery said. “It’s a match we’ll never forget.”
The notoriously difficult home crowd backed France unconditionally on Tuesday, a surprise in itself. There were no jeers, no tedious gasps of despair early on. “The atmosphere was amazing,” Ribery said. “As soon as we started warming up, we felt that the fans were behind us and ready to encourage us until the end.”
After the final whistle, the players huddled around a microphone and sang the national anthem and the crowd joined in. The players even sprayed journalists with champagne as they ran through the post-match interview area.
L’Equipe featured a photo of Karim Benzema peeling away in delight, his face bursting with pride, after scoring the second goal. Midfielder Blaise Matuidi is sprinting behind him, arms aloft as the thrill of an unexpected qualification started to become real.
Le Parisien chose the headline “Et 1, et 2, et 3-0!” — a reference to the boastful song the fans chanted when it soundly beat Brazil 3-0 to win the 1998 World Cup.
Liberation went with the catchy “Rio, Bravo,” along with a picture of players joining hands as they ran to celebrate in front of their jubilant fans.
“Deschamps a reussi son pari” (Deschamps’ bet came off), Le Figaro said on its website, with a photo of the wide-eyed coach being lifted up into the air by Ribery, Patrice Evra and Mathieu Debuchy.
L’Equipe’s website showed a photo of Paul Pogba, Debuchy and Mathieu Valbuena mobbed by delirious fans with a headline “La Passion Etait La” (They Showed Passion).
Last Saturday, the mood bordered on vicious the morning after a lackluster performance in Kiev that had seemingly ended French hopes.
Deschamps responded to the criticism by bravely making five changes — and they worked.
Mamadou Sakho came into the center of defense in a makeshift partnership with Raphael Varane — they had played only once together before — and Sakho scored the first goal and pressured Oleg Gusev into scoring an own-goal for the third.
The bravest move was replacing Olivier Giroud in attack with Karim Benzema — who had been dropped in previous games. The Real Madrid forward scored the second goal.
“It’s my proudest moment in the blue jersey,” said Benzema, who had gone 15 games without an international goal before scoring against Australia last month.
With qualification assured, Deschamps’ contract was automatically extended another two years, meaning he will be in charge for two tournaments since France is already qualified for the 2016 European Championship it is hosting.
While Cristiano Ronaldo sealed Portugal’s qualification, there was disappointment in the playoffs for Iceland, which lost 0-2 to 10-man Croatia at Zabreb and was eliminated by the same score on aggregate. Greece was the other European nation to make it to Brazil through the playoffs after drawing 1-1 in Romania to progress 4-2 overall.
Mexico qualified yesterday after beating New Zealand 4-2 in the second leg of an intercontinental playoff, bringing an end to one of its most troubled and divisive qualifying campaigns.
Striker Oribe Peralta followed his double in the opening leg with a hat trick at Wellington to send his team to Brazil with an aggregate score of 9-3.
The final berth for the 32-team World Cup will be secured later yesterday as Uruguay protects a 5-0 lead over Jordan.
Spain endured a miserable return to the scene of its World Cup triumph in 2010, losing 1-0 to South Africa at FNB Stadium in one of a host of international friendlies.
A virtually second-string Germany team consigned England to back-to-back losses at Wembley Stadium for the first time in 36 years by winning 1-0.
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