Les Bleus produced a once-in-a-lifetime comeback to be on the plane to Rio next June.
France overcame a two-goal first-leg deficit in their Fifa World Cup play-off tie with Ukraine to somehow book their place at Brazil 2014 next summer thanks to a 3-0 second-leg victory at the Stade de France on Tuesday night, with the home players and coaching staff celebrating their incredible achievement in extraordinary fashion after the match.
(Video) France 3-0 Ukraine: 2014 World Cup Qualifying Play-Off Highlights
Watch France’s wild post-match celebrations in Paris below:
Very few people, either in France itself or throughout the Continent, gave les Bleus much of a prayer of being able to overcome Ukraine by a three-goal winning margin in Paris on Tuesday evening, especially after the mauling which the visitors took in the first encounter in Kiev on Friday.
However, in the buildup to the decisive return leg in the French capital, national team manager and former captain Didier Deschamps, while admitting that his players faced a monumental task to turn the tie around, still claimed that anything was possible on the night.
But that is exactly what happened in St Denis, as first new Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho pounced on a rebound in the penalty box to poke the home side into the lead midway through the first half, before the French fans really then started to believe when soon after Real Madrid front man Karim Benzema made it 2-0.
And there was an air of inevitably about the match-winning strike which was an own goal, with the whole of the Stade de France erupting in joy at the full-time whistle.