Ireland robbed by ghost of Maradona

Ireland, after having outplayed France and beat them at home, have been robbed by a ridiculous handball by Thierry Henry in extra time, France head to the world cup as cheats

A truly shocking turn of events - I thought we were better than that these days? What with four officials and all, I have yet to see it myself - but the BBC say it was blatant and I'll look for a video to put up

Edit: Here's the video - he's even keeping it in play with his hand - France should've had their top striker sent off before a penalty shoot out and instead they go the world cup...C'est la vie



Seriously - how can they allow such an injustice to go unchecked? It's blatant, everyone was aware of it as it happened, this isn't 1986 anymore

In other news Portugal did qualify, as I expected...

But Russia and Ukraine both surprisingly went down - Greece claimed the only goal of the two-leg tie to sink Ukraine in Kiev, and Slovenia beat a deflated Russia 2-2 on away goals

In Africa, Algeria triumphed in the deciding play off in Sudan

Slovenia were the only unseeded team to qualify from the UEFA play-offs


So much for Hiddink...

The final spot is fairly benign, between Uruguay and Costa Rica - Uruguay lead 1-0 and are at home - perhaps Costa Rica will tie it and Uruguay will throw the ball into the net in ET?

This is a travesty - I just don't understand how they can allow this to stand - it's only 15 minutes of extra time anyway...just call a penalty shoot-out!