Irish Eyes Frowning

France won a deserved victory in this playoff first leg in Dublin, thanks to a deflected Nicolas Anelka goal in the second half. Ireland had a decent first half but rarely threatened after the break as France showed their class.

Early on Ireland put pressure on the French and came extremely close to scoring after Robbie Keane had pressurised the French keeper leaving a gilt edged chance for Liam Lawrence. At first glance it looked like he'd missed an open goal, but in fact Patrice Evra managed to deflect the ball wide of the open goal.

Ireland never threatened the same again, and in the second half it was mostly one way traffic with France dominating possession although not creating too many clear opportunities themselves. At times it did look like men against boys however, with Ireland's occasional sporadic attacks having the energy and enthusiasm of a lower league team trying their best in an FA Cup match against Premier League opposition, but the same lack of quality. They charged forward more in hope than expectation it seemed, whereas France's confidence grew throughout the match and finished off comfortable winners.

Is it all over? Far from it. Ireland will be backed by thousands in Paris on Wednesday and scoring an away goal there leaves it all to play for, and they've shown throughout this campaign that they are capable of scoring against the best of them.

Unfortunately for them, France seem to have regained some of the belief which had deserted them earlier in their campaign, and will be favourites to progress now.