France completes the procedure by winning in Helsinki and Ukraine will play the play-off

The French team, current world champions, closed the qualifying phase for the Qatar 2022 World Cup with a comfortable 0-2 victory over Finland, in a match in which the French team was enough with the individual quality of Kylian Mbappé and Karim Benzema to defeat a rival who was playing his last options to access the play-off.

Quite the opposite of the French team that traveled to Helsinki with their homework already done after sealing their ticket for the Qatari event last Saturday with a resounding defeat (8-0) over Kazakhstan.

A circumstance that invited Didier Deschamps’s men, who left key players like striker Karim Benzema on the bench, to face the match with some relaxation.

As confirmed by the little offensive baggage with which the French team closed the first half, in which a couple of shots from Moussa Diaby and Antoine Griezmann could hardly be counted.

More surprising was the low ambition of the Finnish team, which despite needing victory to try to access the play-off, was more concerned at all times to contain their rival, as made clear by the five-man defense line with which the match started. contention, than looking for the rival goal.

A gray panorama that changed with the entry in the 57th minute on the pitch of Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, who had already tried Finnish goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky on the first ball he touched.

I do not need more Benzema, who nine minutes later, in the 66, signed the 0-1, after culminating with a sensational shot a no less outstanding combination with Kylian Mbappé in the interior of the area.

And it is that Benzema does not seem to understand procedures, the same as Mbappé who in the 76th minute rounded off the French victory in a counterattack in which the Paris Saint-Germain striker not only showed his speed and power, but also his effectiveness in the auction.

Two individual sparks were enough for France to defeat a timid Finnish team 0-2, who never gave the impression of believing the possibility of achieving the victory they needed to enter the play-off.

It did not succeed. Ukraine did not fail in its visit to Bosnia. He won 0-2 with goals from Oleksandr Zinchenko and Artem Dovbyk and still opts to participate in a World Cup. He has not played it since Germany 2006. Absent in South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018, Qatar 2022 may be the redemption for Oleksandr Petrakov’s men.