This November 19 will mark the 10th anniversary of the founding victory of the Blues against Ukraine in the play-offs for the 2014 World Cup. “Without this result, I am no longer here,” he easily agrees.
The memory is still painful. On November 17, 1993, Emil Kostadinov crucified 59 million French people by sending a strike from elsewhere under the helm of Bernard Lama, forcing the Blues to repack their dreams of America. As in 1990, the 1994 World Cup will take place without them. Since then, the French team has systematically qualified. Twice, the Blues nevertheless came to the edge of the precipice.
A first time in 2009 when it took a hand from Thierry Henry to prevent the troops of Raymond Domenech, reigning vice-world champions, from getting caught in the Irish carpet in the play-offs. Four years later, the French team is off to an even worse start when it prepares to face Ukraine in the second leg of the play-offs for the World Cup in Brazil. The fault lies in their 2-0 defeat in the first leg after a disastrous performance.
But the Blues appeared transfigured during the return match and reversed the situation in a Stade de France in meltdown thanks in particular to an improbable double from Mamadou Sakho. France won 3-0 and validated its ticket to Brazil where it would advance to the quarter-finals, only beaten by Germany, en route to its fourth star. The seeds for 2018 are planted and Didier Deschamps has no doubt about the weight of this victory in the collective adventure of the Blues in recent years.
This evening is a founding act for his troops and he is convinced that he would not have survived a failure against Ukraine despite the esteem that Noël le Graët had for him. “It’s the tipping point. Without this result, I am no longer here,” he confided last fall on this subject, adding: “ The basis is this return barrage against Ukraine too. So, this 2014 World Cup, at least, we’re there. We are in Brazil, in the country of football, the Maracana… We lost against the future world champion, Germany (0-1, in the quarter-finals), who undoubtedly had something more than us, but the disappointment is strong because we are not far away. We have to be satisfied with that, but it’s a step. Some young players, like Raphaël Varane, Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba, who would later become managers, were experiencing their first major competition. »
