AP) SAINT-DENIS, France -- France qualified for its fourth consecutive World Cup when officials missed an obvious hand ball by Thierry Henry that led to William Gallas' overtime goal in a 1-1 tie against Ireland on Wednesday night.

With help from Swedish referee Martin Hansson, who failed to call the hand ball, France avoided a penalty-kicks shootout and won the home-and-home, total-goals playoff 2-1. The French had come away with a 1-0 victory in Dublin last Saturday.

The game appeared headed to penalty kicks when Florent Malouda sent a free kick to Henry at the post to the right of goalkeeper Shay Given in the 103rd minute. Henry got between defender Paul McShane and Given, stopped the ball with his left hand, then used his hand again and poked the ball with his outstretched right foot in front of the net.

"He almost caught it and walked into the net with it," said Robbie Keane, who had put the Irish ahead in the 33rd minute.

Gallas headed the ball into the net from about 1 yard as Irish players raised their hands in protest at Hansson.

its called football and there are rules to go by. . . . . . . . if the THREE referees didnt see anything wrong then the players are allowed to go on witht the game ¨at hand¨.
the whole world can see that he handled the ball, just like Maradona did or just like some puppet would fall in the zone without being touched.
thats football and like someone said that day: if they dont want to bring video replay on ALL games then they should shut up and stick to what the referee sees.

the Irish can bitch/complain/ cry/send letter to fifa and all who want to listen to them. . . . . FRANCE is going to the world cup , ET VOILA!!!!

Continue here pls, Thanks.
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-354173.0.html