Irish 'Cheated' By Henry Handball

France on Wednesday qualified for the World Cup when they played a 1-1 drawn game with the Republic of Ireland.

Republic of Ireland defender Richard Dunne said he felt "cheated" of a World Cup place after his team's 2-1 aggregate loss to France in Paris.

French striker Thierry Henry handled the ball in the build up to William Gallas's decisive extra-time goal earning a 1-1 draw on the night.

Dunne said: "Henry admitted afterwards he handled it, but it doesn't make me feel any better. We were cheated."

Henry added: "I will be honest it was a handball but I'm not the referee."

Remarkably, Henry sat down on the pitch with Dunne after the final whistle and said afterwards he admitted the handball to the Irish defender.

"I told Dunne," Henry said. "He said the same to me, 'you're not the ref'. That's why the players did not come to me, that's why they went to the referee.

"You can clearly see the opportunity. Sebastien Squillaci went to jump for the ball with two Irish players and I'm behind him.

The next thing I know the ball hit my hand, my arm even. It was right in front of me, I played it.  "The ref allowed it and that's a question you should ask him."

The Barcelona striker clearly handled the ball to stop it going out of play and then prodded it across goal for Gallas to nod home in the 104th minute. That left Ireland little time to reply having taken an early lead through Robbie Keane's strike after 33 minutes.

As at the time of going to press yesterday, the Irish had asked FIFA to order a reply of Wednesday's play-off match.

Other world Cup Play-Off Scores
Algeria       1  -  0     Egypt…….....Algeria qualify

Slovenia     1  -  0     Russia ……...Slovenia qualify

Ukraine       0  -  1     Greece……....Greece qualify

Bosnia        0  -  1     Portugal……..Portugal qualify

C. Rica     0  -  1       Uruguay..........Uruguay