A deflected winner by Nicolas Anelka against Ireland has put France in sight of the 2010 World Cup at Croke Park Stadium in Dublin.
The Chelsea forward's 72nd-minute goal deflected off a defender and the post before finding the net on Saturday.
France will claim a spot at next year's 32-team tournament in South Africa by avoiding defeat in the return match at home on November 18.
"I preferred the second half when we were more ourselves," said French boss Raymond Domenech.
"There were lots of high balls, which isn't our game," he added. "The main point is that we didn't concede any goals and I am happy with this."
Ireland's manager Giovanni Trapattoni said that the ricochet was unfortunate for his side. He told his players to consider this match only the first half with the remaining half to be played in France.
"I said to my players, we played 90 minutes, but don't depair, this is the first half," Trapattoni said.
"We will have in Paris, the second half. All is possible in football. For example, a little deflection can turn the game around," he added.
In other matches the same day, Portugal came away with a 1-0 first-leg victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina. Russia defeated Slovenia 2-1 in another playoff, while Greece was held 0-0 at home by Ukraine.
An Open Letter to Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan
9 years ago
Very disappointing result for Ireland!! For anybody who put a bet on the game, you might find this article an interesting read: http://bit.ly/259yOs
ReplyDeleteIt's from the Right2Bet campaign website and it goes into detail about how much money you could have lost from your winnings because of where you happen to be based in the EU. Pretty topical at the moment for the Irish and the French given Paddy Power's recent foray into the French gambling market, I reckon. There's also a petition on the Right2Bet site to get fairer rules across the EU, which will get presented to the EU Commission once it reaches 1million: I'd encourage you to sign it if you think you've been burnt by these unfair rules.