1998 World Cup winners France have qualified for their fourth successive World Cup finals after a controversial 2-1 victory (on aggregate) over the Republic of Ireland, who last qualified for the tournament in 2002. Thierry Henry appeared to stop the ball with his left hand before brushing it back into his path to cross for William Gallas to score.
The Irish should feel extremely hard done by after a brave battling performance in front of the Parisian crowd. Robbie Keane gave Ireland the lead in the first half after some good work down the left hand side involving Damien Duff. Duff had a chance to double the lead in the second half but his right footed shot was easily saved by Hugo Lloris. Robbie Keane also had another chance but ran the ball out of play when surely a trademark chip over the keeper was needed.
The main talking point will be about Henry’s handball to setup William Gallas. Henry gained legend status at Arsenal before leaving for Barcelona in the summer of 2007. He will go down as one of the greatest forwards of his generation, however there is sure to be uproar in the forthcoming weeks. The handball played an enormous part in the outcome of the game and put the French through to South Africa next year.
Ireland’s Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni was clearly distraught at the incident and spoke after the game: “I am not only disappointed, I am also sad. It is a bitter evening. It’s a bitter situation. I would prefer to have gone out on penalties. I am sad because the referee had time to ask the linesman. I am sure he should have, and he could have confirmed it was handball. I am upset. We speak many times about fair play. I go to schools and speak about fair play. I speak with the young kids about sport. Its important in life. Everybody saw the game. You know what happened.”
[...] Played in sixteen Premier League games this season, however suffered a blot clot injury following Ireland’s controversial defeat to France in the World Cup playoffs. Played his last game of 2009 in the 1-0 defeat to Chelsea and made a comeback in earlier April in [...]