Nothing, without a doubt, would have been possible without this crazy evening in November 2013. Without “Mamad’s day of grace”, the double of a gala Sakho, first scorer from the left, then, in the wake of Karim Benzema, with a right foot that saved everything at once: the honor of the French team, qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and certainly the coach’s skin.
Deschamps would certainly not have become this capital DD without this saving victory, also founding, against Ukraine (3-0). Four days after sinking in kyiv (0-2), the French team overturned everything in its path. The predictions which said that a team beaten in the play-off by two goals in the first leg would never qualify for the return, but also a Stade de France which had not experienced such jubilation since the coronation of 1998.