HENRY: I'M NOT THE REF
Thierry Henry absolved himself of responsibility for the Republic of Ireland's World Cup exit after setting up the controversial deciding goal with his hand.
William Gallas' extra-time winner came after Henry appeared to twice handle the ball before crossing, but the offence was not spotted by the officials.
As a result, Ireland lost their play-off 2-1 on aggregate and it is the French who will head for the finals in South Africa next summer.
Henry admitted afterwards he had handled the ball but laid responsibility for the goal being allowed at the door of referee Martin Hansson.
"It was a handball, but I'm not the ref," he said on BBC Radio 5Live.
"The ball hit my arm, fell in front of me and I played it. The ref allowed it. That's a question you should ask him."
Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni admitted he would rather have suffered the heartache of penalty shoot-out defeat.
Trapattoni said: "I am not only disappointed, I am also sad. It is a bitter evening.
"It's a bitter situation. I would prefer to have gone out on penalties.
"I am sad because the referee had time to ask the linesman. I am sure he should have, and he could have confirmed it was handball.
"I am upset. We speak many times about fair play. I go to schools and speak about fair play. I speak with the young kids about sport. Its important in life.
"Everybody saw the game. You know what happened."
Ireland's dreams were torn apart 13 minutes into extra-time after the ball reached Henry deep inside the penalty area.
He appeared to control twice with his hand before squaring for Gallas, who bundled it home to level on the night and give the French the decisive goal in the tie.
Furious goalkeeper Shay Given led the protests to Swedish referee Hansson and his assistant, but to no avail as France held out to squeeze through to next summer's finals in South Africa.
It was especially hard luck on the Republic, who were the better side for long periods at the Stade de France.
They took the lead on the night when skipper Robbie Keane fired home from Damien Duff's 32nd-minute cross, and had several opportunities to increase their advantage.
John O'Shea fired over from a good position two minutes after the restart and Duff went through one on one with keeper Hugo Lloris with 61 minutes gone, but came away second best.
And so despite not losing any of their six away games during the qualifying campaign, including trips to Italy and France, the Irish slipped to a fifth defeat in six play-off ties as a new heartbreaking chapter in their football history was written.
Assistant boss Liam Brady said it was "a sad day for football", although by then, there was no way back.
Trapattoni said: "France played well in Dublin, but tonight we played better.
"And over two games, we deserved to go to South Africa. But the result is different. We can only wish them well. They can do well in South Africa."
Ireland defender Richard Dunne, who spoke to Henry on the final whistle, said his side had been cheated out of a finals berth.
Dunne spoke to Henry after the final whistle and said: "He admitted afterwards he handled it, but it doesn't make me feel any better because we are not going to the World Cup finals.
"FIFA will probably be happy. Yet again the big decisions have gone for the bigger team.
"There has to be a case for matches of this importance for a fourth official to look at replays and get the calls right.
"We were cheated tonight.''
Sean St Ledger added he and his team-mates felt "robbed" by the manner of ther defeat.
St Ledger told Sky Sports: "We got robbed, you can tell by the boys' reaction it hit his hand blatantly.
"We feel cheated - we were the better team over the two legs, every football fan in the stadium will say we were the better team tonight.
"It's cost a lot of us our dreams - as a boy I used to dream of playing in the World Cup, and now I'm not."
And the 24-year-old, on loan at Middlesbrough from Preston North End, also called for video technology to be introduced to prevent such controversies in the future.
"I don't understand why we haven't got replays in this day and age," he continued.
"You can get replays within 10, 30 seconds and it would have helped today."
While St Ledger was critical of Henry for his part in the incident, he did not feel the forward's reputation in the game would suffer.
He added: "He's said it hit his hand accidentally but if you look at it you can clearly see it hits his hand twice.
"I'm not sure (his reputation) has been tarnished - it doesn't look great but he's got his team to the World Cup finals.
"If it had been one of our team we'd have probably done the same.
"The blame doesn't necessarily fall on him but he's handled it, everyone can see it around the world."
France coach Raymond Domenech's press conference bordered on farce when there was initially no interpreter, although when later questioned about Gallas' goal, he was terse to say the least.
He said: "I did not see a hand. It's you people who are speaking about this.
"Sometimes we feel unlucky like we were against Serbia, sometimes we feel lucky.
"I just want to congratulate the Irish team. I am disappointed for the public and the fans. In a way, I regret that they did not qualify.
"I very happy for the players and the staff and the people here. The only word we need to say tonight is that we are very happy at the qualification."
Gallas claimed he did not know that Thierry Henry handled the ball in the build-up to his vital goal.
"It all happened so quickly. I received the ball from Thierry. It happened so quickly that I couldn't see (if the ball hit his hand)," the Arsenal defender said.
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