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.”

France take a 1-0 lead to Paris for next week’s playoff second leg after Nicolas Anelka scored in the 71st minute to give Les Blues a priceless victory in Dublin. France will be without Barcelona defender Eric Abidal and Lyon midfielder Jeremy Toulalan due to injury, however the French Football Federation announced that there won’t be any replacements called up.

France, who won the World Cup in 1998 and finished runners up in 2006, will be confident that they can see of the Irish, who were so close to qualifying outright but conceeded a late equalizer to current World Champions Italy last month. French coach Raymond Domenech spoke to a press conference but played down any thoughts that the tie was over: “I feel we are only halfway through. The objective is to qualify. There are 180 minutes. Ninety to go. The Irish played very well and are very much able to react so we must be vigilant.”

Ireland captain and Spurs striker Robbie Keane was a bit more upbeat about the challenge that the Irish face in Paris. The striker added “The one (chance) that counted has cost us (but) they got lucky with that goal which was a deflection. We have to believe we can go there and win”. Ireland failed to make the cut in 2006 but reached the last sixteen in 2002 – narrowly losing out to Spain on penalties. Ireland will be hoping that they can emulate Scotland’s performance in 2007 when James McFadden scored in a 1-0 victory in Paris. France will still be without Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery but will still expect to reach the finals with a forward line consist of Thiery Henry, Karim Benzema and Yoann Gourcuff.