France qualified for its fourth consecutive World Cup when officials missed a double handball by captain Thierry Henry that led to the extra-time goal in a 1-1 draw with Ireland on Wednesday.
Greece, Slovenia, Portugal, Algeria, and Uruguay also advanced to next year’s tournament in South Africa on the final day of qualifying, completing the 32-team field.
The teams will be drawn into eight groups on December 4 in Cape Town, and the first World Cup on the African continent opens on June 11.
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.”
In the other European playoffs, Greece won 1-0 at Ukraine on Dimitrios Salpigidis’ 31st-minute goal for a 2-1 aggregate victory to appear in its first finals since 1994.
”I can’t find words to describe the atmosphere in the dressing room,” Greek Football Federation chairman Sofoklis Plavios said.
”This triumph is unbelievable. No one is saying anything. They’re just celebrating and hugging each other.”
Slovenia upset visiting Russia 1-0 behind Zlatko Dedic’s 44th-minute goal to leave the aggregate 2-2 and advance on away goals;
”My guys became immortal,” Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek boasted.
Portugal won 1-0 at Bosnia-Herzegovina on Raul Meireles’ second-half goal for a 2-0 aggregate win that gave Fifa player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo a World Cup trip.
Algeria qualified for its 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. Yahya scored with a right-footed volley that beat goalkeeper Essam El Hadary.
Uruguay, a former two-time champion, earned the final World Cup berth, drawing with visiting Costa Rica 1-1 to win 2-1 overall.
Sebastian Abreu scored for Uruguay on a header in the 70th minute, but Walter Centeno equazlized in the 74th.
Costa Rica will miss the World Cup for the first time since 1998. The Ticos were seconds from qualifying last month when they allowed an injury time goal in a 2-2 draw against the United States, dropping them behind Honduras into fourth place in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Egypt, whose only World Cup appearances were in 1934 and 1990, forced its playoff by beating Algeria 2-0 with an injury-time goal in Cairo last Saturday that left the Pharaohs even atop Africa Group C and set off several violent outbursts.
The embassy and sites of Egyptian businesses such as Egypt Air and telecom group Orascom were attacked on Saturday. Several Algerian players had been injured before the match in Cairo as Egypt fans pelted Algeria’s team bus with rocks.
Security was stepped up near the Egyptian Embassy in the Algerian capital, Algiers, but there were no signs of violence. The streets of Algiers quickly filled with celebrating citizens, some setting off fireworks. Traffic came to a standstill in the centre of town, and Algerians also hit the streets in Paris, Marseille and the Gaza Strip.
Qualifiers Spain, the Netherlands and Italy were among the teams in friendly action, while Germany drew 2-2 with Ivory Coast in its first game since the suicide of goalkeeper Robert Enke last week.
David Villa scored twice to lead European champion Spain to a 5-1 win at Austria, Giorgio Chiellini earned Italy a 1-0 win over Sweden and the Netherlands drew 0-0 with Paraguay.
The Germany players paid tribute to Enke in an open letter before the game, calling him a ”good friend whose death brought us a little bit closer together.”
Enke killed himself eight days ago after suffering for years from depression. Germany canceled another friendly against Chile last week out of respect.
Also Wednesday, Denmark rallied to beat the United States 3-1, Serbia ended South Korea’s 27-match unbeaten run with a 1-0 win in neutral London, and Bulgaria won 4-1 at Malta. — Sapa-AP