The Blues will defend their title in Qatar: flamboyant winners of Kazakhstan with a quadruple from Kylian Mbappé at the Parc des Princes on Saturday (8-0), the French world champions have validated their ticket for the 2022 World Cup before the end of the qualifiers.
Mbappé aroused the ecstasy of the 45,500 spectators at the Parc des Princes, quickly reassured his coach Didier Deschamps, who had asked for vigilance at the start, and also delighted Karim Benzema, double scorer, by delivering him an assist ( 59th).
It’s a special night, with the end result. We knew that the opponent was weaker than us, but we had to put the way, and that’s what we did
, said Benzema. For me, it’s special to qualify for a World Cup.
The most important thing tonight was qualifying, because we wanted to give ourselves this chance to defend our title, also for those who were not in Russia.
, said Mbappé for his part. It remains an unimaginable dream to play at a World Cup for your country.
A World Cup is a dream, a goal, that’s all, and it’s a unique chance to be able to play for a team that can win it. We’re going to go there to win it.
Even the Qatari owners of PSG must have had a satisfied eye on the meeting: the Parisian’s quadruplet, registered on the lawn of the club in the capital, European showcase of Doha, had its share of symbols, one year before the World Cup organized in the emirate from November 21 to December 18, 2022.
Twenty-eight years after the last failure of the Blues in the qualifying phase, in this same stadium against Bulgaria (2-1), the France team can measure the progress made.
Since this debacle of 1993, in addition to her two world titles and her European coronation, she has qualified for the 14 major tournaments that followed.
Validating their ticket on the penultimate day also has the advantage of offering serenity to the Blues for the trip Tuesday to the second in the group, Finland. This also confirms the new level of the selection of Didier Deschamps, unbeaten in these qualifiers and who is among the first to qualify for Qatar, after Germany, Brazil and Denmark.
After the title in the League of Nations, this ticket comfortably won gives a little more weight to the thesis of the accident in the knockout stages of the Euro, these famous ten minutes of distraction
against Switzerland, advanced by management as an explanation.
At the Parc des Princes, visited for the first time since 2013 by the Blues due to works in the Ile-de-France transport around the Stade de France, supporters of the France team were able to pay a moving tribute to the victims of the November 13 attacks 2015, six years to the day after the attacks.
A light event was organized and a banner unfurled in the 15th minute of the match, at a time when the first explosions around the Stade de France were heard in 2015, one evening in France-Germany.
A minute of silence was also observed and Antoine Griezmann himself drew a heart under his jersey alongside the date of the 13/11/15
, unveiled after his goal from a penalty shot (84th), which places him the only 3rd highest scorer in history ahead of Michel Platini, with 42 goals.
Belgium will also go to Qatar
Belgium, 3rd in the last World Cup, also qualified for the World Cup in Qatar after beating Estonia 3 to 1 in Brussels.
The Red devils
are guaranteed to finish first in Group E with 19 points, even before the last day of European qualifying.
The French and Belgians thus join the Germans and the Danes in the wagon of the first qualifiers in the Europe zone.
Belgium will play its last match on Tuesday in Wales, which will try to grab 2nd place definitively in the group and access the play-offs. Winner Saturday of Belarus in Cardiff (5-1), Wales is indeed 2nd, but with only three points ahead of the Czech Republic, which will host Estonia on the last day. The Czechs were at rest on Saturday.
In Podgorica, in Group G, the Netherlands led 2-0 after a brace from Memphis Depay and virtually had their ticket in their pockets, but gave up two late goals against Montenegro.
Everything will be played out without this group on the last day. The Netherlands, 1st with 20 points, will receive Norway (3rd, 18 pts), and Turkey (2nd, also 18 pts) will travel to Montenegro. The Netherlands had missed the last World Cup in Russia.
