Irish hopes crushed as Thierry Henry hands victory to France

Republic of Ireland
The referee, Martin Hansson, waves away the appeals from Ireland's Shay Given and Kevin Kilbane, left, after France's crucial equaliser. Photograph: Mike Egerton/Empics

Those who doubted football's capacity for cruelty ought to have been on hand in Paris - much in the manner that Thierry Henry was for France.

After the Republic of Ireland had controlled lengthy spells of regulation time and ought really to have obviated the need for the additional 30 minutes, the France captain was at the centre of a controversy that left Ireland nursing bitter feelings of regret and recrimination.

Replays showed with utter blatancy that Henry had handled the ball twice before he smuggled it across from the byline for William Gallas to head home what proved to be the aggregate winner and it looked worse with each rerun. Ireland might also have had a claim for offside in the build-up. France had felt that Nicolas Anelka should have had a penalty for a foul by the Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given earlier in the first period of extra-time but that did nothing to dampen the feeling of injustice.

Giovanni Trapattoni's spirited team had cancelled out France's first-leg advantage through Robbie Keane's first-half goal and Damien Duff and Keane himself had spurned glorious opportunities to win the tie in normal time. Ireland's players emerged with rich credit, many having played the game of their lives. The role of gallant losers, however, offered scant consolation.

At full-time golden tinsel exploded from the rafters at the Stade de France and it rained down on to the pitch. Ireland's parade was over. Henry, however, is nothing if not thick-skinned. He revelled in the French celebrations and he led his players to all corners of the pitch to thank the home fans. Ireland had been cheated and, if their players had seen Henry applauding, hands held high above his head, they might have felt that their noses were being rubbed in the dirt.

France had been whistled off at half-time by a frustrated crowd, having peppered a dismal opening 45 minutes with feckless mistakes. They would create little in normal time. Ireland, loaded with collective discipline and never-say-die attitude, sensed their hosts were there for the taking. Amid the knife-edge tension they had grown in assurance and their goal was well-advertised and fully deserved.

Kevin Doyle had glanced wide from a Liam Lawrence cross and Keane had been denied at close quarters by Hugo Lloris when Duff began the move that would fire Irish dreams. He swapped passes with Kevin Kilbane and, having darted in behind France's defence, he pulled the ball back for Keane to finish unerringly for his sixth goal of the campaign.

Ireland's tactics involved trying to play off Doyle, with high balls forward, and attempting to get at France's perceived soft centre with whipped crosses from Lawrence and Duff into the penalty area. France were forced into a reshuffle when the centre-half Julien Escudé went off injured in the ninth minute. At times they were at sixes and sevens.

Ireland's dominance as the second half began was exhilarating. And the giddiness almost increased when, from a Lawrence set piece, John O'Shea, unmarked at the far post, had time to control only to drive his shot over the crossbar. Where there were Irish heroes everywhere, France's players went missing until extra-time.

It was a measure of Ireland's excellence that the game ought to have been over on the hour mark. Lawrence played Duff clean through. Irish hearts leapt into mouths yet Duff shot too close to the advancing Lloris, who blocked.

France finally got a foothold of sorts in the second part of the second half and Anelka began to flicker. Ireland's players had put body and soul on the line, no one more so than Sean St Ledger, who made a series of vital interventions. They were asked to find previously uncharted depths of resolve yet, once again at the other end, they had the opportunity to win it. Lawrence sent Keane through and, although he rounded Lloris, he overran the ball out of play. The haunting memories, however, were yet to come.

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