France are in serious danger of missing out on the football World Cup finals for the first time in two decades after losing 2-0 to Ukraine in Kiev in their play-off first leg on Saturday morning.
Roman Zozulia gave the home side a deserved lead in the 61st minute and Andriy Yarmolenko scored from the penalty spot with eight minutes left.
Ukraine are now strong favourites to go through to their second World Cup finals but France coach Didier Deschamps
believes his side can recover and turn things around.
Elsewhere, a late diving header from Cristiano Ronaldo has propelled Portugal to a 1-nil win over Sweden in the first leg of their World Cup playoff in Lisbon.
Greece came away from their first leg with a 3-1 win over Romania in Athens, and 10-man Iceland held visitors Croatia to a 0-0 draw in Reykjavik.