Slovenia have done it, a 1-0 win over Russia makes the aggregate score 2-2, and Slovenia go through on away goals.

Portugal secure their place in the World Cup with another 1-0 win over Bosnia, making it 2-0 overall.

France are down 1-0 to Republic Of Ireland after 90 minutes, meaning a 1-1 aggregate score. Extra time to sort this one out!

Meanwhile Uruguay and Costa Rica kick off in one hour.

French cheats what an absolute disgrace, sick for the Irish team they played the french of the pitch for most of the match. Absolutely robbed.

Must admit, the sportsmanship from Richard Dunne at the end of the match sitting chatting with Thierry Henry was brilliant......

There are gonna be a lot of posts about french cheats etc etc, but there isnt a footballer alive for ANY team that wouldnt have done what he done......

He got away with it but the game should have been over if Robbie "need 1 million chances to score" Keane had put the ball in the net when 1 on 1.

Unlucky Ireland - Well Played France - was a great game

That was Duff, not Keane.

In the chat room, you said of the French goal "That was a good goal" or words to that effect.

Clearly a hand ball, but what the ref says he means it and nothing can be done to change it when he makes his choice.

France score in extra time, unlucky Ireland

One space left...Uruguay vs Costa Rica, now the biggest game on Earth! Who will prevail? The Uruguayans, who hold a 1-0 lead and are at home, or the Costa Ricans, going for two World Cups appearances in a row? Only one can win, the other, failure and sadness will flow over them. Who will win, Uruguay or Costa Rica? You decide!

You don't really get to decide, sorry.

for frances goal there was two people offside and henry didnt only handle the ball once he did twice, he actually caught the ball and threw it back in and they scored, how a linesman cannot seen this is a joke. France did not deserve to go through in anyway. Anyways rant over.

Yup, pity... But it's a clear argument for video replays to be introduced. Gallas was offside too when the ball first went in.

Have just spent the last hour crying my eyes out, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to Irish sport...we've been cheated of a place in South Africa because of inept and simply appalling officiating, it's absolutely farcical. Nothing more to say, we have been well and truly robbed.

It reminds me of the "Hand of God" - Henry must have asked Maradona for some pointers at halftime!

I figure there should be a rule introduced in cases like this. If the referee is suspicious but can't prove to himself that the goal was invalid, he should be able to ask the player if anything happened that should invalidate the goal. if he lies and says no, then that player is guilty of deceiving the referee and gets a nice ban.

I'm sure this could be introduced into a competition's rules and wouldn't need the Laws of the Game to be amended. They don't cover suspensions from competitions.

In other news, Uruguay took the lead after 70 minutes of their game, the second leg, at home, to make it 1-0 on the night and 2-0 on aggregate. But just 4 minutes later, Costa Rica made it 1-1 and 2-1 on aggregate, meaning that another would send them through, a situation identical to Ireland's following the French goal. However they failed, even sending a clear opportunity wide late on. So Uruguay become the 32nd and last of the 32 qualifiers on a night that the final 6 teams booked their place in South Africa: Algeria, Slovenia, Portugal, Greece, france and Uruguay.

it would have been injustice for Uruguay not to get there after their loss in a PSO to the Socceroos in late 2005.

Should be an excellent world cup.

The questions being asked especially here in Australia is can the Socceroos match or better their performance in Germany?

How well will New Zealand go in their first cup in 28 years - will they do something like the Socceroos did (no expected the Aussies to go as well as they did in Germany)

Can Henry's lucky goal prove to be a world cup winner?

Who's the favoriute to win?

what you will find in the chat room I said "GGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL"

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The question you should be asking is would New Zealand be at the World Cup if they had been in Irelands group - would Ireland be at the world cup if they were in New Zealands group.

Thats where the injustice is

Edited by forum moderator aflumpire, at 09:31 Thu 19/11/09 (GMT)

you cant expect near 200 countries playing each other could you?

be a bit like getting all the teams to play each other in the FA cup so there are no "lucky" or favorable draws

or getting all the tennis players at wimbledon to have a full round robin competition - it would take months

something like what you want would take YEARS!!!

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but they are all seeded - as you stated last night, you dont follow soccer - please stick to aussie rules

im just following my country to the biggest sporting event in the world

used to be before FIFA started giving "byes" to second rate footballing nations

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