France find themselves in all sorts of problems following the 2-0 loss in Kiev, but it is clear it is still too early to be writing off les Bleus.

On the other hand, Ukraine need to finish the job after the impressive display in the first leg and there are no doubts they are the favourites to go through.

Seeing as how France have struggled every since Didier Deschamps took over the reigns from Laurent Blanc, nobody was surprised to see les Bleus miss out on automatic qualification.

And while the team did show some improvement in the build up to the World Cup qualifying play-offs, the first leg in Ukraine proved they do not really deserve to be playing at the tournament finals.

Even with a number of world-class players at their disposal, France just could not match their less illustrious opponents and ended up suffering a deserved 2-0 defeat.

As a result, the hosts now face a mountain to climb, as witnessed by odds of 3.00 (2/1) offered at BetVictor on les Bleus to qualify.

And while France are 1.44 (4/9) to win the return leg, I am not sure there is big value in those odds considering the circumstances.

Raphael Varane is set to deputize for the suspended Laurent Koscielny, whereas Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Valbuena are pushing for starting places.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Lloris – Debuchy, Varane, Abidal, Evra – Cabaye, Matuidi, Pogba – Valbuena, Giroud, Ribery.

Ukraine had a pretty disappointing start to the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, but they managed to return to the right track and produced quite a coup by earning the play-off berth.

It was nothing more than they deserved for a string of impressive performances under new boss Mikhail Fomenko, and the play-off match against France proved their new-found confidence.

Ukraine played patiently throughout the match and ended up creating a two-goal advantage before the return leg that has made them 1.45 (9/20) favourites to qualify for the World Cup.

The fact the Eastern European side haven’t conceded in last eight matches in all competitions should keep them in good stead for the match at Stade de France, although some serious defensive problems could mean the amazing run is about to end.

Namely both Oleksandr Kucher and Artem Fedetskiy are suspended for the match in Paris, although boss Fomenko seems to have decent replacements.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Pyatov – Husyev, Rakitskiy, Khacheridi, Shevchuk – Stepanenko, Rotan – Yarmolenko, Edmar, Konoplyanka – Zozulya.