The French fries Ireland !!

IRELAND were cruelly conned out of a World Cup place as Thierry Henry's blatant handball saw France scrape into the finals.

Giovanni Trapattoni's men produced a heroic display on a pulsating night in Paris and deservedly levelled on aggregate with Robbie Keane's first-half strike. But they were controversially undone in extra-time when Henry clearly used a hand to control the ball before squaring for William Gallas to head home and clinch Les Bleus' ticket to South Africa.

The Republic, trailing 1-0 from the first leg, came to attack and were rewarded with the crucial breakthrough in 33 minutes.

Ireland had another glorious chance to put France to the sword on the hour when Liam Lawrence's ball sent Duff clear but keeper Hugo Lloris made a crucial save.

At the other end Paul McShane had to get in a brave block to keep out Yoann Gourcuff's 70th-minute volley, while Anelka glanced a header wide two minutes later.

French hearts fluttered within seconds, however, as Keane ghosted into the penalty area and skipped around Lloris only to run out of space before he could get his shot in. And Lassana Diarra was a relieved man when Keane fired over in the final minute after running on to his misplaced pass. With eight minutes gone in extra time Anelka threw himself to the ground as Givens' challenged in the box but ref Martin Hansson did well to ignore the penalty appeals.

French footballer Thierry Henry has admitted handling a ball before a crucial goal that sent his team to the World Cup at the expense of Ireland.

At the final whistle, Given collapsed and lay on the ground in total dejection for several minutes as France celebrated.

Gallas, who jumped into coach Raymond Domenech's arms at the end, said: "It went so fast. I saw Thierry's pass, the Irish were surprised and I just put my head in and the ball went in." Domenech said: "It was difficult, arduous and sometimes miraculous.

"We are happy, like the whole of French football. I knew we were going to get a 1-1 draw and make the World Cup."

Not to mention, that this match was titled "the match of the fear" from french newspaper !! also, top players attended this match : Former worldclass player Zidane and Former french goalkeeper Fabien Barthez

After winning 1-0 in Dublin on Saturday, France won 2-1 on aggregate, and will play in its fourth straight World Cup. Ireland failed to qualify, as in 2006.

> Portugal, Slovenia and Greece won their respective play-off ties to book their places at the 2010 World Cup.

1/ Jose Raul Meireles scored as Portugal defeated Bosnia-Hercegovina 1-0 in Zenica for a 2-0 aggregate win.

2/ Russia won their first leg 2-1 but Zlatko Dedic's deftly taken goal gave Slovenia a 1-0 second-leg win and victory on the away goals rule.

3/ Dimitris Salpigidis scored the only goal of the tie as Greece defeated Ukraine in Donetsk.

4/ Algeria booked a first trip to the World Cup in 24 years by beating Egypt 1-0 in a tense play-off in Sudan.

For the first time, we heard a huge and a heavy "Allez les Bleus" all around stade de France !!