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Tuesday 09 February 2010 04:09 GMT

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Portugal, Greece, France reach World Cup
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:46:15 GMT
Portugal qualified for its third straight World Cup on Wednesday, beating Bosnia 1-0 after Raul Meireles' second-half goal in the second leg.

Meireles' low shot in the 56th minute from Nani's pass gave Portugal a 2-0 win on aggregate to advance to next year's tournament in South Africa.

“It is difficult to comfort the boys, they are devastated. Kenan Hasagic had a nervous breakdown,” Bosnia coach Miroslav Blazevic said. “But this is a young (team) and has potential to develop.”

Backed by noisy fans, Bosnia made a lively start, pressing the Portuguese from the beginning but an Edin Dzeko header went over the crossbar and Vedad Ibisevic's kick was too low to be a problem for Eduardo.

Bosnia may have had more of the ball but it was unable to open up the Portuguese back line.

Blazevic tried to boost the home attack in the second half by replacing Medunjanin with Zlatan Muslimovic.

It didn't help and when Meireles scored the game was effectively over, with the Bosnians needing three goals to salvage qualification.

Frustrated fans threw objects on to the field, hitting assistant referee Paolo Calcagno in the head after Sejad Salihovic was dismissed after picking up a second yellow card.

Portugal substitute Edinho almost scored a second, but his 83rd minute shot was well saved by goalie Kenan Hasagic.

In another match, Greece beat Ukraine 1-0 in the return leg of their European zone play-off and reached the World Cup finals for the first time since 1994.

Panathinaikos striker Dimitris Salpingidis netted the only goal of the match sending Greece, the 2004 European champions, into their second World Cup finals after a 16-year absence.

"I'm proud of my players. They put all of their heart and soul into today's match," said Greece manager Otto Rehhagel.

"It was really tough to contain Ukraine's attacks throughout the match but we did our best and luckily we managed to do it and achieve the desired result."

Greece and Ukraine, who were deadlocked at 0-0 after the first leg in Athens on Saturday, struggled to impose themselves early on in a match played on a rain-soaked pitch of the half-empty, 50,000-seater Donbass Arena.

Slovenia also qualified for only their second World Cup with a 1-0 win over nine-man Russia in their European zone, second-leg play-off tie.

Striker Zlatko Dedic, who plays his club football for Bochum in Germany, scored the only goal just before the break. He was fastest to the ball when Valter Birsa crossed from the right with Russia's defenders caught cold.

Russia had won the first leg 2-1 in Moscow on Saturday, but Slovenia's win on Wednesday meant they qualified on the away goals rule.

"They are men of merit for continuing the Slovenian football fairy tale," said Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek.

"They have become immortal. We were better from the first minute of the game and we earned the right to go to South Africa."

Everton midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov had scored twice in the first match before Nejc Pecnik's goal two minutes from time gave Slovenia hope for Wednesday's return leg.

After conceding Dedic's goal here, Guus Hiddink's Russian side suffered another setback when substitute striker Alexander Kerzhakov was red-carded for a foul on goalkeeper Samir Handanovic in the 66th minute.

Kerzhakov had only come at the interval to replace the ineffective Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko.

Russia shrugged off them red-card to dominate possession in the closing stages with Arsenal star Andrei Arshavin starting to impose himself on the tie.

Arshavin set up substitute Pavel Pogrebnyak, whose header was well-saved by Handanovic.

Yuri Zhirkov then had a fierce drive saved by Handanovic before Dedic wasted a great chance to finish the game at the other end when he blasted over the top with five minutes left.

Slovenia held firm to reach their first World Cup finals since their 2002 debut.

Slovenian coach Matjaz Kek started the game with the same team from Moscow while Hiddink started with one change, bringing in Semak Janbayev as both sides played a 4-4-2 formation.

In the forth minute, Milivoje Novakovic was one-on-one with Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev before the danger was cleared before Andraz Kirm hit the post.

Russia's opportunities were rare in the opening period and their miserable night got even worse in injury time when Zhirkov was sent-off.

In another match, France also qualified for its fourth consecutive World Cup when officials missed an obvious hand ball by Thierry Henry that led to William Gallas' overtime goal in a 1-1 tie against Ireland on Wednesday night.

With help from Swedish referee Martin Hansson, who failed to call the hand ball, France avoided a penalty-kicks shootout and won the home-and-home, total-goals playoff 2-1. The French had come away with a 1-0 victory in Dublin last Saturday.

The game appeared headed to penalty kicks when Florent Malouda sent a free kick to Henry at the post to the right of goalkeeper Shay Given in the 103rd minute. Henry got between defender Paul McShane and Given, stopped the ball with his left hand, then used his hand again and poked the ball with his outstretched right foot in front of the net.

"He almost caught it and walked into the net with it," said Robbie Keane, who had put the Irish ahead in the 33rd minute.

Gallas headed the ball into the net from about 1 yard as Irish players raised their hands in protest at Hansson.

Soccer does not allow officials to use video replay, although the assistant referees can point out infractions to the referee.

"I will be honest, it was a hand ball. But I'm not the ref," Henry said. "I played it. The ref allowed it. That's a question you should ask him."

Gallas hardly knew what happened.

"It went so fast. I saw Thierry's pass. The Irish were surprised, and I put my head, my chest," he said as his voice trailed off.

Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni was livid and had to be calmed by officials. Irish fans - about 8,000 in one section behind the goal - 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 hand ball."

At the final whistle, Given collapsed and lay on the ground in dejection for several minutes as France celebrated. Gallas jumped into coach Raymond Domenech's arms.

"It was difficult, arduous and sometimes miraculous," Domenech said. "It was a victory by the skin of our teeth."

Domenech felt it was a shame that Ireland didn't qualify, as well.

"I want to congratulate the Irish players for this battle," he said. "They gave us a very hard time."

Ireland, which is missing its second straight World Cup, had gone ahead when Keane took a pass from Damien Duff and beat goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
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