France v Ireland

[scoobydoo]

What chance the Irish tonight...be a tough night I would think eh?

Greece winning 1-0 away to Ukraine, 20 mins to go (0-0 first leg)

[lowe1]

I think the best game tonight will be Egypt v Algeria

will be a fiery atmosphere to say the least

[lowe1]

I think the best game tonight will be Egypt v Algeria

will be a fiery atmosphere to say the least

:splapme:splapme:splapme:splapme:splapme:splapme


I did not realise it had finished earlier

[scoobydoo]

Robbie Keane gives Ireland a 1-0 lead (32 mins), deserved as well. 1-1 agg :)

[scoobydoo]

Greece knocked out Ukraine,I wonder how strong England's group was after all! Russia are getting beat 1-0 by Slovenia, 2-2 on aggregate with Slovenia leading on away goals.

[scoobydoo]

Portugal, Slovenia & Greece through to South Africa 2010. Ireland playing extra-time after beating France 1-0.

[peza2605]

after that equaliser i really hope ireland do it now.

[scoobydoo]

Thierry Henry cheats and uses his hand to keep the ball in-play twice before Gallas puts the ball in the net, 1-1 on the night and 2-1 France on aggregate, 15 mins to go to rescue Ireland's World Cup dream

[lowe1]

Henry has gone down in my estimation now massively

[peza2605]

Henry has gone down in my estimation now massively

agreed totally.

[scoobydoo]

I hope every Irish player goes up to him at the end and applauds him sarcastically- the benefits of doing what he has just done might come back and haunt him, I hope so the arrogant ...

[peza2605]

i know it may be a bit extreme but at the end of the day ireland were CHEATED out of the world cup there , it was obvious. france should be made an example of and thrown out, cheating is getting far too commonplace in football and something needs to be done.

[scoobydoo]

i know it may be a bit extreme but at the end of the day ireland were CHEATED out of the world cup there , it was obvious. france should be made an example of and thrown out, cheating is getting far too commonplace in football and something needs to be done.

I agree with you pez, they should do something- but they wont.How can Henry sit on the floor with Dunne at the end, if I was Dunne I would have got up and walked away. What does this say to kids...it's crazy.

[chancer]

Have to say i'm gutted. I can't fault the effort of the players and i can't hate Henry too much. I don't think its in his nature to be a cheat. **** happens some times. Guess i'm stuck rooting foy you're lot next summer again

[MattR]

It's a difficult one I think. Yes it's wrong and yes it's yet another bad example to kids etc. However almost every player has probably handled the ball at one time or another, most of the time it's seen and it's a free kick. On this occasion it wasn't. Can you say you wouldn't have done it in the same circumstances with a world cup place on the line? It's wrong and it's an awful way to go out and it's yet another case for video.

Ultimately though it's no different to a player winning a penalty for diving so I think it's a bit harsh to castigate Henry for a spur of the moment decision. Remember Gordon McQueen punching the ball into the net in the FA Cup Final -what if that hadn't been seen?

I thought Henry looked a bit sheepish after the game, he certainly wasn't proud of it like Maradona that's for sure!

[jonahjones]

Whatever your viewpoint, one thing is for sure, Thierry Henry will forever be remembered for what he did tonight more than anything else he has ever done in his career in the same way as Maradona and "the hand of God".

[scoobydoo]

Whatever your viewpoint, one thing is for sure, Thierry Henry will forever be remembered for what he did tonight more than anything else he has ever done in his career in the same way as Maradona and "the hand of God".

Yes that is correct and I am not displeased with that, I could never stand the man. He is just so arrogant, aloof. He struts around as if he has this superiority complex, don't touch or tackle me. A complete in my opinion.

One thing is for sure, France are going to have to play a lot better than they did tonight to get through the group stages in South Africa, by the look of it this is not a good French side at the moment.

[Win2Win]

The ball hit Keane on the shoulder in the French area and they got a free kick, Keane was asking why he wasn't booked, which he should have been .... and yet it wasn't even a handball anyway :splapme

A lot of the blame goes first on FIFA for seeding the matches in order to get the BIG teams through = More Money. So they got what they wanted regardless of how much cheating went on as they started it

As for Henry, all respect I've had for him over the years has now gone, and hope he gets Boos every time he appears in this country. For him to come out at the end and admit he touched it but it wasn't intentional is a load of , who the else was controlling his had?

Even the 5th/6th Refs would have seen that farce.

Besides, the goal was offside anyway :splapme

[wb]

Absolutely sick. Not only did they mess up the rules to let the big teams qualify (an absolute disgrace that they done it after the completion had started), Ireland now go out unfairly.

I think there's a good case to be made for a video ref for goals at least. Not for every decision - just the goals. There is so much at stake these days and I find it amazing that such things are still allowed to happen. We have video in racing, rugby and may other sports - I can't see the problem. We should also think of the betting public. You can't really compare to racing, but people are betting millions per year on soccer and are getting done left, right and centre by bad decisions. In this day and age, I think it's crazy that we don't have a video for goals at the very least.

[MattR]

I agree Wayne, and if you think about it, the correct decision could be made in less time than it takes for the aggrieved team to stop arguing with the ref anyway, so it's not as if it would slow the game down either!

I think it could only be for 'goals' and penalty decisions though. I wonder, although maybe this wouldn't work, whether the tennis idea could be adopted and each team is allowed to challenge one decision per half (only for a penalty or goal decision)

[John]

I haven't seen the video, but every link I find has been removed due to copyright. Has anyone got a link that works? Thanks...

[scoobydoo]

Besides, the goal was offside anyway :splapme

It was yes...you would think that FIFA wanted France to go through eh.

Let us just remember now that if Henry ever bleats about a wrong decision for France or Barcelona, he has no moral leg to stand on. He would have been rightly outraged if someone had done this to his team, he is just a cheat plain and simple now. He knew they couldn't beat Ireland legally, they have indeed been robbed of their place in the World Cup.

Also for a player to say they didn't intentionally do it is a cop-out, they can do it time and time again and say I didn't mean it. If he was being honest in what he said, he should have gone to the ref straight away and said I hand balled it twice...you just cannot win like this and get away with it in my opinion.

[John]

Right I've seen the video now on TV Catchup.

As the ball is played to him you can see the ball hits his hand, probably intentional but of course he's going to deny it. A normal person wouldn't deny it but footballers are born in denial. He moves his hand towards the ball and kinda nudges it.

How did Henry get the ball across to Gallas, was that the second hand ball?

Sorry if these sound like daft questions but I've only seen it from one camera angle and there's a player obstructing Henry (in front of the camera, so you can't see) when he gets the ball across to Gallas. So you can't see what part of his body he uses to do that.

[scoobydoo]

All the Youtube videos are gone apart from this one, just turn down the sound!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDvUvKzUUhU

You can see the handball on the replay although it is not really great,(about 47 secs in) he handballs it twice and then passes it to Gallas.

[John]

Mmm... yeah it's not all that clear! Thanks anyway though. I'll try and catch it somewhere... I'd have thought the BBC would have acquired broadcasting rights for the replay.

[lowe1]

This is much better John though music is irritating

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OiWT...eature=related

[scoobydoo]

Yeah that is better, Henry likes basketball as well doesn't he!

[MattR]

I've got to say I don't quite get the furore over Henry in the sense of it being as if only he has ever cheated. Let me clarify that by saying I agree with it but don't get the indignance about it when just about every weekend in the premier there is the same cheating going on and the players don't get berated as if they are the game's biggest cheat(ok apart from Ronaldo perhaps)

To put it in context, a player pulls a defender out of the way at a corner and scores with a header. The ref doesn't see it and the goal's given. What part of Henry's handball is worse than that? The foul is premeditated too, the player knows he done it but he won't go up to the ref and say oh actually I fouled the defender there, you should disallow that goal.

Or how about N'Gog's ridiculous dive against Sunderland the other week that earnt Liverpool a point?

It's all the same to me, yes Henry cheated and it's wrong and Ireland have been robbed (though they may have lost on penalties anyway). The point is it happens constantly in football and something has to be done about it. I just don't get why Henry is getting so much stick in comparison to everyone else who does it.

[John]

Thanks for the better video Tony, it sounds a lot better muted. :)

In some ways Matt I agree with you there, but I think the issue is more to do with the scope of what it's cost Ireland. There is uproar in the Prem and in any other league when players cheat; the most recent example I can think of being N'Gog's dive which you mentioned, and rightly so. I think the reason why Henry is getting lambasted with grief is because he used his hand. It's a different sort of cheating to, and I hate to say this but it's true; what we're used to, and so people are keen to quickly brand it similar to what Maradona did. If an Irish player had gone in to slide tackle Henry and Henry did a dive, and France went on to score the winner from the penalty spot, would there be as much uproar? I don't think there would to be honest. Plus the other reason people are so outraged is because Henry is French.

Of course I don't agree in the slightest what he did was fair in any way whatsoever and Ireland have been totally unfairly cheated, but at the end of the day, cheating is cheating and this isn't all that different to a dive or a ridiculous tackle.

Anyway, France won't win the World Cup because England will, right?

[scoobydoo]

The fact of the matter is this whole thing would not have happened if the old farts had brought in TV technology, which would have taken about 20 seconds to see that Henry had handled it. It'll come but not while these lot are in charge.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle6923181.ece

Have I really got to give up my Gillette razor now then!