Woeful France faces exit, Ronaldo rescues Portugal
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France’s hopes of reaching the World Cup finals are hanging by a thread after a 0-2 first-leg defeat away to Ukraine in their playoff on Friday while Cristiano Ronaldo’s late winner gave Portugal the edge against Sweden.
Ten-man Iceland battled to 0-0 home draw with Croatia in Reykjavic to keep alive its dream of qualifying for a first major tournament while Greece will be confident of finishing off Romania next week after a 3-1 victory in Athens.
Of the eight European nations in the last-chance saloon after missing out on automatic passage to next year’s tournament in Brazil, France is the worst placed going into this week’s second legs after a miserable night in Kiev.
Second-half goals by Ukraine’s Roman Zozulia and Andriy Yarmolenko and a red card for France defender Laurent Koscielny made it a night to forget for Didier Deschamps’ side which needs a vast improvement in Paris on Tuesday to repair the damage.
“It’s obviously a very bad result. We have to believe (we can go through) but Ukraine are the team in the best position to qualify,” he said.
France last failed to reach a major tournament in 1994 but Deschamps, who was past of that squad, remained defiant.
“We still have 90 minutes at home,” he added.
Ronaldo overshadowed Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic in their playoff match — billed as a clash between two of Europe’s hottest strikers — pouncing late on a tense night in Lisbon.
By a quirk of the draw for the playoffs, one of the biggest names in the world game will be missing next year in South America — a blow for neutrals and sponsors alike.
However, the odds look slightly shorter on Ronaldo gracing the stage after the Real Madrid man, so often the dazzler, proved he will also put his head in the line of danger for his country by stooping to score an 82nd-minute winner.
Several countries spared the ordeal of a playoff were also in action as the build-up to the 2014 finals begins in earnest.
Italy and Germany drew 1-1 at the San Siro where Ignazio Abate grabbed his first international goal for the hosts after Mats Hummels put the visitors ahead on the night their coach Joachim Loew celebrated his 100th match in charge.
England was given a jolt at Wembley as an experimental side was outclassed by Chile, for whom Alexis Sanchez scored twice in a convincing 2-0 win.
Fabio Capello’s Russia side was held 1-1 at home by Serbia while Switzerland went down 1-2 to South Korea in Seoul.
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