Henry’s Hand of God breaks Irish hearts
FRANCE (1) vs. REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (1)
AET, FRANCE WIN 2-1 ON AGGREGATE
THIERRY HENRY relived the Hand of God in Paris last night to cruelly deny Republic of Ireland a place in the 2010 World Cup finals.
The Barcelona striker blatantly juggled the ball with his hand before setting up Arsenal’s William Gallas for an extra-time equaliser which Les Bleus barely deserved.
Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland battled like trojans for the full 120 minutes – forcing the extra period when captain Robbie Keane converted Damien Duff’s cutback on 33 minutes to cancel out Nicolas Anelka’s first-leg strike from Saturday.
Both Keane and Duff were then foiled by France keeper Hugo Lloris as the visitors went all out for that all-important second goal.
But the French held on and eventually broke Irish hearts on 103 minutes when referee Martin Hansson failed to spot Henry’s clear handball in controlling a long ball forward and Gallas bundled home amid furious protests.
France will now be joined in South Africa next summer by Portugal, Greece and Slovenia, who all won their respective second-leg matches 1-0 last night to complete the European contingent of qualifiers.
Jose Raul Meireles netted the winner as Portugal completed a 2-0 aggregate win over Bosnia Herzegovina in Zenica, while, in Donetsk, Dimitrios Salpingidis got the only goal of the tie to see Greece past Ukraine.
Slovenia were 2-1 down to Russia from the first leg but Zlatko Dedic’s goal gave them victory on away goals.
Algeria also qualified with a 1-0 win over fierce rivals Egypt in the African play-off – Antar Yahia sparking mass celebrations with the only goal.