France's Yohan Cabaye happy to silence critics

Yohan Cabaye has said that he is pleased to have silenced the critics who gave France no chance of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup finals.

Didier Deschamps's side lost 2-0 to Ukraine in the first leg of their playoff tie last Friday, but won the second leg 3-0 in Paris on Tuesday to progress to next summer's tournament 3-2 on aggregate.

"We came in for a lot of flak in recent days and we responded in the best possible way on the field," Ligue1.com quotes the Newcastle United midfielder as saying.

"It's possibly the happiest moment of my career and the team played a great game."

Mamadou Sakho scored twice for France and Karim Benzema added the other against Ukraine.