Henry, Euro Round Up, Algeria, Uruguay

Wow, what a boring and uncontroversial night of football that was. Le hand of frog? France reached the World Cup finals with a 1-1 draw aet in Paris last night but the game was marred by what can only be described as cheating from Theirry Henry. Was it a handball? Definitely. Was it cheating? Definitely. Is anyone suprised? Definitely not. The ball came over the top from a French free kick and a possibly offside Henry trapped the ball with his hand (ok, first one he MIGHT have got away with) and then flattened his hand out and flicked the ball back to his right foot to stop it going out of play. He then pokes it (with his foot surprisingly) to trusty Gallas in the middle to face it home and break Irish hearts. Henry should feel ashamed of himself this morning and I'm afraid last night will go a long way to destroying his reputation in football round the world. You could see after the whistle how embarrassed he looked, barely breaking an Henry mid-frown, and then went over to Richard Dunne and sat down next to him to probably apologise. This is a team who have just qualified for the World Cup, shouldn't they be running around like mad French chickens? Not if you KNOW you didn't deserve it. I love Henry for what he did for Arsenal and I'll certainly never forget those wonderful moments he provided this football club with but last night was a sad indicement of where the game is going. The recent spate of diving, last nights handball, I don't want to sound like an after school special but kids are watching all this happen and are seeing every week footballers being rewarded for cheating. It raises questions again about TV replays which would have definitely caught Henry out, if there had been an extra official behind the goal I'm sure he would have seen it too. It's difficult to blame the lino or ref if they didn't see it, and some suggestions that Henry should have called it on himself are a mile away right now. But should they be a mile away? Golf and snooker players will admit fouls on themselves, you see occasionally a cricketer admitting a nick or a bounce before a catch. It would be lovely to see footballers taking this road but I just can't see it happening, they will do anything to win. Henry will rightly be shafted for this, but in a few weeks something else will happen that'll have us up in arms again, and France are still there in SA and Ireland won't be. Platini and Blatter will be delighted of course, their bullshit seeding system gave the powerhouse every chance to get through despite a shocking qualifying campaign. We'll see how happy they are when Rooney handles the ball in against France or Germany in a semi.

The game itself is what will make the handball even more difficult to swallow for Irish fans. It's not as if it was a French onslaught and the handball was the 'bit of luck' they deserved, oh no. Ireland played some great stuff and took the lead after a well worked move was finished by Robbie Keane. They might have been ahead before that following a great headed chance for Kevin Doyle, and in the second half more chances and half chances came to O'Shea, Duff and a great one from Keane where he's round the keeper but his heavy touch ran the ball out. France were pretty poor of the bits I heard and saw, Lloris in goal was excellent over the 2 legs, so when you're keeper is your best player that says it all really. But France are there, by hook or by hand they have made it. They've made it certainly in spite of Domenech, not because of him. They still look like a group of classy individuals and not a team, and I know Paddy Viera might not have the legs anymore but in a similar Beckham style move, I'd like to see him brought back in to try and unite the French. They still have Ribery to come back in and when a player like Benzema can't get off the bench then you know there is a great depth in quality. I expect with the feel good factor in France now that Domenech will keep the job for the World Cup (which he shouldn't) and it'll probably be a disappointing last 16 defeat to an Ivory Coast that'll be the final nail in his final coffin. As for Ireland, the disappointment and anger will be raw for a while but they have made some significant strides this campaign. They've got a great coach who makes them very tough to beat (the 1-0 in Dublin his only competitive defeat - they actually beat France 1-0 in Paris last night didn't they?!), they have a good team spirit and if they can add one or two bits of quality (get McGeady playing well, bring Reid back in, Stephen Ireland gonna stop being a twat?) then they've got a great chance to get to Euro 2012. I'm not sure of it but I think all these good results etc will help their world ranking, therefore helping their European co-efficient so that the next campaign will give them an easier draw etc. Well done Ireland, you did a quarter of me very proud, and France, you made a half of me embarrassed but relieved.

Slovenia won 1-0 against Russia to remarkably put them through on away goals, so there'll be no magic from the little Arshavin next summer. So from a neutral point of view that's a shame, from an Arsenal point of view there's now little chance he'll break his neck in South Africa. Greece won the game that no-one cared about with an honestly impressive 1-0 win in Ukraine. I'm glad on reflection that Greece went through, they don't have tossers like Shevchenko and Voronin in their team. And lastly in Europe my big tip for the night was spot-off, Portugal won 1-0 in Bosnia for a comfortable 2-0 aggregate job. Breathe easy again Blatter, Ronaldo will be at the World Cup.

In the big African showdown in Sudan, Algeria beat Egypt 1-0 to send the underdogs through. Again I think I'm glad that the Algerians made it, the nonsense they had to go through by being bricked and cinder blocked as the drove into Egypt last week was a disgrace. We can moan about handballs and dives all day long but that really is quite incredible. Finally Uruguay unsurprisingly took the last World Cup place with 1-1 draw against Costa Rica (2-1 agg). This happened at godknowso'clock so I don't really have anything to say about it. Well done all the 32 teams, the thought of 3 games of football a day next summer has already got me salivating. Take her easy.