The Finnish national football team's hopes of qualifying for next year's World Cup finals in Qatar were dashed on Tuesday evening by a 2-0 defeat to world champions France at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki.

The defeat means the Huuhkajat (or Eagle Owls) finish in third place in qualifying Group D, missing out on advancing to the next stage by just one place and one point.

Instead, Ukraine - whose 2-1 victory in Helsinki in September has proved to be pivotal - will contest for a place in the finals in the play-off round next March.

Finland were in second place in the group going into the last round of fixtures on Tuesday, but needed to beat France to guarantee a place in the play-offs. Failing that, Finnish fans were hoping that Ukraine would not be able to win against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the group's other game on Tuesday evening.

With one hour played in both games, Finland's dream of qualifying for the World Cup finals for the first time ever was still on track, until everything changed in the course of fifteen dramatic minutes.

Firstly, Oleksandr Zinchenko gave Ukraine the lead against Bosnia and Herzegovina - meaning Finland would now have to win against France. Within five minutes of Zinchenko's goal in Zenica, Real Madrid's Karim Benzema scored for France in Helsinki.

Kylian Mbappe then added a fantastic second for France, two minutes before substitute Artem Dovbyk scored again for Ukraine.

Both games finished on a scoreline of 2-0 to the visiting team, meaning France finish on top of the group with 18 points, Ukraine are in second on 12 points with Finland in third on 11.