World Cup 2010 – Its the French for the Irish

Posted on November 1st, 2009 by

The Republic of Ireland are going have to beat former World Cup winners France over two legs if they want to make it to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Giovanni Trapattoni's Republic side have drawn the 1998 winners for the play-offs which will be played on the 14th and 18th November and will play at home first.

France are probably the toughest opponents the Republic could have been drawn against , except for maybe Portugal, in their quest to reach the finals in South Africa. Ireland failed to qualify for the World Cup in Germany while France eventually lost in the final to Italy on penalties.

Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney said that Trapattoni will be worried facing a team that reached the last World Cup final in Germany. "I've spoken to the manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, he's quite relaxed about it," Delaney said."We don't lose games on many goals, we don't win games on many goals. I wouldn't expect that pattern to change."

The Republic finished second in Group Eight behind Italy, while France, who are ranked nineth in the world and managed by Raymond Domenech,just missed out on automatic qualification for South Africa, finishing one point behind Group Seven winners Serbia and losing only one game.

"The France players know them well from having played either with or against them," said Domenench, "There won't be any surprises. We know what's coming.They're a team who have not lost in qualifying, who drew with Italy in their last game after conceding a late goal. We know they're tough, but so are we."

The two countries last met in the 2006 World Cup qualifying stages, a 0-0 draw in Paris, and a Thierry Henry goal was the difference between the two sides when they met in Ireland.

The World Cup play-offs in full:

Republic of Ireland v France
Portugal v Bosnia-Hercegovina
Greece v Ukraine
Russia v Slovenia

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