International Round-up: Portuguese and French go through

It was mainly positive news for the Chelsea stars bidding to make the World Cup next year, with only Russian import Yuri Zhirkov missing out.

Both Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda booked their tickets to South Africa in controversial style, as the much publicized Thierry Henry handball helped Les Bleus claw their way back against a resilient Irish outfit.

Anelka once again took a prominent role as France defended the 1-0 first leg advantage he had given them over Republic of Ireland. Malouda was a traditional late sub by Raymond Domenech, this time three minutes before the end of normal time and three minutes before he received an undeserved booking. The appearance was his 50th for his country.

Ireland had scored through Robbie Keane on 32 minutes to level the tie which went into extra time. And it was arguably the Irish who dominated proceedings at the Stade de France.

Anelka came close to breaking the deadlock in the late on with a shot from outside the area and had a strong shout for penalty turned down when clipped by Shay Given as he passed the Ireland keeper.

France levelled on the night and thus won the tie with an aggregate of 2-1, despite the unfortunate handball by Henry, before he turned the ball across for former Blue William Gallas to head in from close range.

It was more straight-forward for the Portuguese quartet of Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, Deco and Hilario, with a 2-0 aggregate win over Bosnia.

Carvalho and Ferreira played throughout, the right-back making an importance clearance late on. Deco, who came off in the first leg with a groin niggle, started on the bench but was introduced in place of Atlético Madrid’s Simao. Hilario was on the bench for the first time in an international.

Russia was the night’s shock, going out on away goals to Slovenia with Zhirkov dismissed in the dying moments.

They can have few complaints about the summer they will spend at home. Guus Hiddink’s side failed to perform to anything like the standard of their group stage campaign. They lost the 2-1 advantage they took to Slovenia when the home side scored through Zlatko Dedica a minute before the break.

Zhirkov’s night to forget began badly with an eighth minute booking for a late tackle.

Towards the end of the match, the Russians failed to capitalize on a free-kick won skilfully by the Chelsea man and soon after he became involved with an unused substitute who was attempting to waste time while warming up. Having pushed the player to the ground, the left-back was shown a second yellow card.

The incident meant they went down to nine men and there was to be no way back from the Easter Europeans.

The result, in a stadium holding under 14,000 people, was the first time since the play-offs were introduced in 1998 that a side that won the first leg did not go through.

In the fourth play off, former Blue Andriy Shevchenko suffered disappointment when Ukraine lost 1-0 at home to Greece after a goalless first leg.

In Wednesday night’s international friendlies, Salomon Kalou returned to the Ivory Coast side after missing the weekend’s game for disciplinary reasons and played 83 minutes of a 2-2 draw against Germany in Munich.

Michael Ballack, unable to play due to injury, placed Robert Enke’s number one shirt on the bench among the substitutes as a mark of respect for the goalkeeper who died last week.

In front of 8,000 spectators at Craven Cottage, Branislav Ivanovic played the full game as Serbia ended a 27-match unbeaten run for South Korea with a 1-0 win.

Michael Essien was not part of Ghana’s 0-0 draw with Angola in a friendly. The Ghana Football Association announced earlier in the day that the Chelsea midfielder and two other players were unexpectedly absent.

The dynamic midfielder played 82 minutes on Sunday in a WC Qualifier against Mali, although the Black Cats had already sealed their place in South Africa.

In other African Qualifying news, John Obi Mikel’s Nigeria qualified for next years World Cup with a 3-2 victory away to Kenya. The 22-year-old played a full game for the Super Eagles and will be an integral part of the squad that takes on the world next year.

Miroslav Stoch played a second match in 24 hours following a sub appearance for the full Slovakia side on Tuesday. This time he played the whole of an important Under 21 Euro qualifier against Croatia. The result was a 2-1 home defeat that leaves Slovakia trailing the Croats in their group.

Nemanja Matic started a 3-1 away friendly win in Denmark for Serbia under 21s.

By Joshua Kepreotis

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