Earlier during their return leg play-off match versus France, Ireland had lost to an extra-time goal which was assisted by France captain Thierry Henry after he had handled it. More about that match can be read here.

Blatter said:

“I will bring it to the attention of the Executive Committee”

The executive committee will hold an emergency meeting in Cape Town on Wednesday, to discuss if they should go ahead with the idea of extra match officials during the World Cup.

Blatter also added that Costa Rica have a case because Uruguay scored an offside goal during their play-off’s. Costa Rica would also have to be taken into consideration if extra places are decided upon.

Earlier, FIFA, the world governing body ruled out any hopes of a rematch.
FIFA said in a statement:

“FIFA has replied to the request made by the Football Association of Ireland to replay the 2010 FIFA World Cup play-off match held on 18 November 2009 between France and the Republic of Ireland in Paris. In the reply, FIFA states that the result of the match cannot be changed and the match cannot be replayed. As is clearly mentioned in the Laws of the Game, during matches, decisions are taken by the referee and these decisions are final.”

The FIFA source told Press Association Sport:

“There is no way the game can replayed. To do so would cause absolute chaos for football. If it was replayed then every match in the future would also be subject to these calls for a replay any time a referee misses an incident. FIFA’s rules are absolutely clear. Law 5 states that a referee’s decision on points of fact are final. That is the end of it. You cannot replay the match on this basis. You have to have a rule that says the referee’s judgement is always right.”

France captain Thierry Henry has admitted that Ireland deserve to have qualified for the World Cup and that the fairest solution would be to replay their controversial play-off. He said:

“Naturally I feel embarrassed at the way that we won and feel extremely sorry for the Irish who definitely deserve to be in South Africa. Of course the fairest solution would be to replay the game but it is not in my control. I have said at the time and I will say again that yes I handled the ball. I am not a cheat and never have been. It was an instinctive reaction to a ball that was coming extremely fast in a crowded penalty area. As a footballer you do not have the luxury of the television to slow the pace of the ball down 100 times to be able to make a conscious decision. People are viewing a slow motion version of what happened and not what I or any other footballer faces in the game. If people look at it in full speed you will see that it was an instinctive reaction. It is impossible to be anything other than that. I have never denied that the ball was controlled with my hand. I told the Irish players, the referee and the media this after the game. There is little more I can do apart from admit that the ball had contact with my hand leading up to our equalising goal and I feel very sorry for the Irish.”

Although Trapattoni has stated that it would be impossible to have a re-match, the Irish FA have lodged an official complaint with FIFA.

In other news, the Swedish Press have apologized to the Irish fans after last night’s blunder by the referees, all three were Swedish.

Pahor told TV Slovenia after coming from the dressing room:

“I just cleaned the players’ shoes but I admit I did not clean them thoroughly”

The Slovenian’s booked a berth in the World Cup beating Russia at home yesterday night. This is their second qualification since 2002, after independence in 1991.

Uruguay 1-1 Costa Rica

Uruguay were favourites to qualify for the last spot in the World Cup and they didn’t disappoint their fans. Uruguay edged Costa Rica 2-1 on aggregate. The Uruguayans started off brightly with a powerful strike at 8 minutes, which was unfortunately saved.

Sebastian Abreu came on in the 65th minute and had an impact from his first touch. He later scored from a Andres Scotti cross in the 70th minute. The Ticos equalized within 4 minutes, but couldn’t add another for the game to go into extra time.

France 1-1 Ireland

It was complete devastation for Ireland who crashed out of the World Cup after an important decision went against them.

Teary eyed Sean St. Ledger applauds the fans

’98 World Champions France qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, however not without some controversy. Ireland will feel cheated after Henry handled the ball that led to the equalizer.

William Gallas gets a 103rd minute equalizer, from a controversial hand-ball by Henry.  Earlier Govou’s goal was disallowed as he had strayed off-side.

French fans pleaded for a penalty after Anelka goes over Given’s arm.

Ireland will be thrilled at taking the lead at Half-time, but will know they have a tough second half ahead. Catch the goal here.

Robbie Keane's celebration after putting Ireland 1-0 ahead of France

Robbie Keane gives the Irish the lead in the 32nd minute. Ireland kept pressing the French and had quite a few chances gone-a-begging.

Rep. Ireland team remained unchanged after the first leg, France have made one change.

Line-ups

France: Lloris, Sagna, Gallas, Escude, Evra, Lassana Diarra, Alou Diarra, Gourcuff, Anelka, Gignac, Henry. Subs: Mandanda, Remy, Sissoko, Benzema, Govou, Malouda, Squillaci.
Rep of Ireland: Given, O’Shea, St. Ledger, Dunne, Kilbane, Lawrence, Whelan, Andrews, Duff, Doyle, Keane. Subs: Joe Murphy, McGeady, McShane, Kelly, Gibson, Hunt, Best.

Portugal 1-0 Bosnia

Portugal took a place in the World Cup with a 55th minute strike from Raul Meireles. Watch the goal highlights here.

Bosnia’s hopes of qualifying looked even slim when Sejad Salihovic got red-carded.

Pepe tackles a Bosnia player

Line-ups

Bosnia-Herzegovina: Hasagic, Jahic, Nadarevic, Pandza, Ibricic, Salihovic, Bajramovic, Pjanic, Haris, Ibisevic, Dzeko. Subs: Begovic, Berberovic, Mirvic, Damjanovic, Muslimovic, Mravac, Milenkovic.
Portugal: Eduardo, Carvalho, Pepe, Bruno Alves, Ferreira, Duda, Tiago, Raul Meireles, Nani, Simao, Liedson. Subs: Hilario, Rolando, Veloso, Deco, Miguel, Edinho, Hugo Almeida.

Slovenia 1-0 Russia

Russia crash out of the World Cup, ended up with 9 players on the pitch in the 92 minute, after Yuri Zhirkov of Russia received two yellow cards (red card). Earlier, Alexander Kerzhakov was red carded after kicking Slovenia keeper Samir Handanovic.

Russia trailed Slovenia at Half-time. Guus Hiddink’s side started off nervously after a defender chested the ball onto his own goal post. The Russian’s settled down after some time but still didn’t manage to break the Slovenian’s.

Slovenia needed to beat Russia 1-0 to book a place in the World Cup and did just that to make their World Cup dreams come true. Watch Slovenia’s goal.

Line-ups

Slovenia: Samir Handanovic, Brecko, Cesar, Suler, Jokic, Koren, Radosavljevic, Kirm, Birsa, Dedic, Novakovic.
Subs: Jasmin Handanovic, Mavric, Ilic, Pecnik, Ljubijankic, Krhin, Stevanovic.
Russia: Akinfeev, Zhirkov, Yanbaev, Aniukov, Ignashevich, Vasili Berezutsky, Bilyaletdinov, Denisov, Zyryanov, Pavlyuchenko, Arshavin.
Subs: Gabulov, Kolodin, Semshov, Semak, Pogrebniak, Dzagoev, Kerzhakov.

Ukraine 0-1 Greece

Greece have made it to the World Cup finals, they hadn’t qualified since their debut in 1994. Dimitrios Salpingidis scored for Greece in the 32nd minute. Highlights.

Heart-ache for Ukraine, they needed 2 goals to be able to qualify for the World Cup but failed miserably.

Algeria 1-0 Egypt

Algeria qualify for the Cup beating Egypt with a first half goal from Antar Yahia. The Sudanese stadium of Algerian fans erupts with joy, give out a huge roar and light up the flares. They’ll be partying throughout the night.

Watch the goal here.

Trapattoni made a late decision to choose Liam Lawrence of Stoke City to play in the right of midfield for Ireland.

Interesting Facts

• If Thierry Henry scores it will be his 5th goal for France this season.
• France haven’t lost in their last 9 games.
• France have scored at least one goal for 10 consecutive matches.

Line-ups

Ireland's keeper-Shay Given, completely dejected

Ireland will now have to pray for some sought of miracle for them to be able to reach the World Cup, after a 0-1 loss to France.

But coach Trapattoni remains positive about their chances in the return leg. Here’s what he had to say:

“Football makes us suffer, but there is another great opportunity in Paris because France have conceded many goals away and also at home.”

He added:

“We must think about this situation, this balance, our performance, our mentality and also what they have allowed opponents in the past. They concede goals and like us, they ended in second place in their group – and we think our group was stronger. We have to think about the positives situation and not the result because in the end, football can come down to a deflection, the crossbar, the referee – there are many situations which can change the result. I don’t wish to speak about luck, but one year, we won a championship with Juventus when an opponent hit the ball against my striker and we scored a goal. If you look at our performance on Saturday night, we played a good game. I have heard also opinion from Italy and other countries, and they said Ireland played a good game against this France team.”

Ricki Herbert, former New Zealand footballer and the current coach of the national team led them to a place in the 2010 Football World Cup today, with a 1-0 win over Bahrain in Wellington, after 27 years.

Take a Bow Mr. Ricki Herbert

Herbert said:

“Tonight’s about these boys. It’s about a group who believed and have never stopped believing and their dream continues.”

“I’ve been very honest with everybody about the quality of this team, we’ve all worked hard, we all backed the system that we truly believed was good enough to win it and they’ve gone and done it.”

In the dying minutes of the first half, striker Rory Fallon put New Zealand ahead heading in from a Leo Bertos corner.

Bahrain came back from the break highly motivated. They won a controversial penalty, which was missed by Sayed Mohamed.

The All-Whites coach added:

“They’ll be iconic, the public will embrace them, they’ll be remembered as the side to achieve it again.”

Cameroon 2-0 Morocco

Cameroon qualified for South Africa, winning 2-0 versus Morocco and recorded a sixth appearance for an African team at the FIFA World Cup finals.

Achille Webo put Cameroon ahead on 18 minutes followed by Samuel Eto’o after half-time against a lacklustre Moroccan team.

Nigeria 3-2 Kenya

Two important goals from Obafemi Martins helped Nigeria defeat Kenya and book a place in the World Cup.

The Super Eagles were trailing at half-time in a match they had to win, but managed to hit two in five minutes. Kenya levelled 12 minutes from full-time only for Martins to score the winner on 83 minutes.

Ireland 0-1 France

Portugal 1-0 Bosnia

Bruno Alves and his Portugal team-mates celebrate his goal

Portugal dominated the game from the start even without their star player- Ronaldo. The home team took advantage of their possession when an unmarked Bruno Alves stole in at the far post and netted in Nani’s pinpoint pass.

Bosnia pressed forward, leaving themselves exposed to Portugal’s rapid counter-attacks, expertly orchestrated by Deco. Chances were spurned at both ends. The Portuguese enjoyed some good fortune as the game neared its conclusion, with around two minutes from time the Bosnians hit the woodwork twice. First of all Edin Dzeko’s bouncing shot struck the crossbar, with Zvjezdan Muslimovic driving the loose ball against the base of the far post. The second leg is to be played on Wednesday.

The man of the match was Portugal’s striker Liedson, with a lively display, producing plenty of technical trickery and darting runs to keep the imposing Bosnian defenders guessing throughout the game.

Greece 0-0 Ukraine

The teams played out a goalless draw. Greece were without several of their first-teamers, but managed to hold off Ukraine, who played an enterprising first half-hour and then completely lost their sting. The return game will be played in Donetsk on Wednesday.

The Greeks had a fine opportunity with captain Konstantinos Katsouranis header bound goalwards only for the Ukraine keeper to pull off an exceptional save to keep the game all square.

Uruguay 1-0 Costa Rica

Uruguay have inched closer to qualifying for the World Cup after beating ten-man Costa Rica away from home in the first leg.

In the  first-half a goal was scored by Diego Lugano, which was otherwise often scrappy.

The Ticos could not make their home advantage pay, failing to get into the Uruguay box or test Fernando Muslera.  Costa Rica suffered a further blow in the 20th minute when defender Gilberto Martinez was forced off with an injury after colliding with Alvaro Fernandez and while he was off receiving treatment, Uruguay profited.

Costa Rica did have a chance to equalise just before half-time, but Bryan Ruiz’s header went over the crossbar.  Things got even worse seven minutes into the second half as Azofeifa brought down Fernandez and earned a second yellow card.

However, Uruguay couldn’t make their one man advantage count.  They squandered possession too often and failed to create chances.

Costa Rica were showing more purpose, but their shots were too weak to properly test Muslera. Fernandez could have doubled Uruguay’s lead with three minutes to go, but saw his header blocked by Junior Diaz.

That means Uruguay take a slim but significant advantage into the rematch at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo on Wednesday night.

Egypt 2-0 Algeria

There was high drama and security concerns leading up to the match. The Algerian team bus was ambushed by Egyptian fans en route to their hotel, with a few players requiring stitches.

Egypt celebrate their goal

Reigning African champions Egypt could not have wished for a better start, with Amr Zaki giving them a second-minute lead and then Emad Meteab scoring five minutes into stoppage time to earn Egypt a victory over Algeria.

Meteab replaced Zaki after 65 minutes and, when all seemed lost, he rose highest to head the ball into the far corner of the net past Algerian goalkeeper Lounes Gaouaoui.

The return game will be played in Sudan on Wednesday.

Blatter told Gazzetta dello Sport:

“We should have announced it from the start.”

“There is something in the rules, but it isn’t clear. If we learn, we’ll change for 2014, but in 180 minutes anything is possible. There are all the best teams (at the World Cup), if someone has missed out it is because they haven’t deserved it.”

Blatter will stand for re-election in 2011, he said:

“I have not yet achieved my mission in football.”

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