Henry hands France WC spot

France avoided a penalty shootout at Stade de France with help from Swedish referee Martin Hansson,who failed to catch Henry slapping the ball with his hand to stop it going out of play and again to set it up for a cross that William Gallas headed in in the 103rd minute to secure the draw and a 2-1 win on aggregate against Ireland.

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

Henry admitted the handballs were intentional,and refused to apologise or express any sympathy for Ireland. “I will be honest,it was a handball. But I’m not the ref,” Henry said. “I played it. The ref allowed it. That’s a question you should ask him.”

Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni was livid and had to be calmed by officials. Irish fans chanted “Cheat! Cheat!” at Henry. “I’m not only disappointed tonight,I’m also very sad,” Trapattoni said. “The referee should have asked Henry,I’m sure he would have admitted there was a handball.”

Later on Thursday,FIFA said it was looking at the Irish association’s (FAI) request for a replay.

“The blatantly incorrect decision by the referee to award the goal has damaged the integrity of the sport and we now call on FIFA,as the world governing body for our sport,to organise for this match to be replayed,” the FAI statement said.

Greece won 1-0 at Ukraine on Dimitrios Salpigidis’ 31st-minute goal for a 2-1 aggregate victory to appear in their first finals since 1994. Slovenia upset visiting Russia 1-0 behind Zlatko Dedic’s 44th-minute goal to leave the aggregate 2-2 and advance on away goals. Portugal won 1-0 at Bosnia-Herzegovina on Raul Meireles’s second-half goal for a 2-0 aggregate win. Algeria qualified for their first World Cup since 1986,beating Egypt 1-0 in a tiebreaker playoff at Khartoum,Sudan,on Antar Yahya’s goal in the 39th minute. Uruguay,a former two-time champions,earned the final World Cup berth,drawing with visiting Costa Rica 1-1 to win 2-1 overall.