LONDON, Nov 16: France’s hopes of reaching the World Cup finals are hanging by a thread after a 2-0 first-leg defeat away to Ukraine in their playoff on Friday while Cristiano Ronaldo upstaged Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the battle of the superstar forwards to keep Portugal’s hopes alive with the only goal in a 1-0 win over Sweden.

Kostas Mitroglou’s double helped former European champions Greece claim a 3-1 win over Romania in Athens and Iceland’s dream of becoming the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup was left on a knife-edge after a 0-0 draw with Croatia in Reykjavic

All four return matches take place on Tuesday, when the 13 qualifiers from Europe will be finalised.

Of the eight European nations in the last-chance saloon after missing out on automatic passage to next year’s tournament in Brazil, France are the worst placed going into next week’s second-legs after a miserable night in Kiev.

Second-half goals by Ukraine’s Roman Zozulia and Andriy Yarmolenko and a red card for France defender Laurent Koscielny made it a night to forget for Didier Deschamps’ side who need a vast improvement in Paris on Tuesday to repair the damage.

“It’s obviously a very bad result. We have to believe [we can go through] but Ukraine are the team in the best position to qualify,” he said.

France last failed to reach a major tournament in 1994 but Deschamps, who was past of that squad, remained defiant. “We still have 90 minutes at home,” he added.

Ballon d’Or nominee Franck Ribery was shackled closely as Les Blues toiled at the Olympic Stadium.

A draw would have been a satisfactory result to take home but just past the hour Zozulia squeezed a shot under Hugo Lloris from close range to spark wild celebrations.

Koscielny then fouled Zozulia in the box to allow Ukraine to double their lead and the Arsenal man’s frustration boiled over when he slapped Kucher in the face to earn a red card that will keep him out of the return match in Paris.

Ukraine also finished with 10 men after Kucher was dismissed for a second yellow card for a foul on Ribery as tensions between the two teams spilled over.

Ukraine coach Mikhail Fomenko said his only regret was not getting a third goal.

“At half-time, I asked my players to step things up a gear and they responded,” he said. “Our first goal was the crucial moment. It would have been better if we had managed to win 3-0 and we had chances to get a third goal.”

One of the world’s top forwards will be absent in Brazil next summer — and it looks more likely to be Ibrahimovic, not Ronaldo.

The heavily billed showdown between two of the biggest stars — and egos — in football looked like falling flat in Lisbon, only for Ronaldo to take centre stage like he so often does for Real Madrid.

Ronaldo star headed past Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson in the 82nd minute from six yards out after a fine left-wing cross from Miguel Veloso.

Ronaldo, who now has 29 goals for club and country this season, almost made it 2-0 moments later when another header thundered back off the crossbar.

“It was an important goal and it gave us victory,” said Ronaldo. “We could have scored one or two more goals but this advantage gives us confidence for the second-leg.

“Nothing is settled yet. It’s 50-50. I cannot promise that we will qualify but I will do all I can to achieve it.”

Ibrahimovic was largely anonymous at the Stadium of Light and, at the age of 32, could be set to miss out on what would likely be his final World Cup campaign.

As it is, a workmanlike Swedish side still harbour high hopes of swinging the tie their way.

“We created a great early chance and Sweden hit back. But in the second half it was one way for us,” Portugal coach Paulo Bento told reporters.

“It was an important step to reach the World Cup but not yet decisive.”

Romania appear likely to miss out on World Cup qualification for the fourth straight campaign after conceding twice in the opening 20 minutes before Mitroglou scored Greece’s third in the 66th to give the 2004 European champions a strong advantage to take to Bucharest.

Bogdan Stancu had equalised in the 19th for Romania at the Karaiskakis Stadium, who had substitute Costin Lazar sent off for a second yellow card in stoppage time.

“Nothing has been decided yet. We need to keep a clear mind,” said Greece coach Fernando Santos. “We’re halfway there. The players worked a lot and managed to seize the opportunities we had.”

Iceland played most of the second half with 10 men against Croatia after Olafur Skulason was shown a straight red card in the 50th minute but they hung on stubbornly for a draw.

“To defend for almost 45 minutes with one less man on the pitch... I can’t describe in words what these players have done,” Iceland coach Lars Lagerback said.

Swede Lagerbeck was annoyed by the decision to send off Skulason for tangling with Ivan Perisic, while Croatia coach Niko Kovac was also disappointed with his side’s tactics.

“We resorted to playing long balls for too long,” said the Croat. “I expected us to keep it on the ground more and we just didn’t implement the gameplan.”

Results:

Iceland 0 Croatia 0

Portugal 1 Sweden 0

Ukraine 2 France 0

Greece 3 Romania 1—Agencies