Reaction to the World Cup play-off draw

Ireland must beat France to reach the 2010 World Cup finals after they were drawn together for next month's two-legged European play-offs. Portugal face Bosnia, while Euro 2004 champions Greece tackle Ukraine and Russia will play Slovenia. Bosnia, runners-up to Spain in their qualifying group, are attempting to reach their first major finals while Slovenia are looking to repeat their feat of reaching Euro 2000. France, the 1998 world champions, 2000 European champions and beaten World Cup finalists in 2006, will have the advantage of playing the second leg on home soil against an Ireland side coached by Giovanni Trapattoni. While France, the highest ranked team in the play-offs at nine, will be favourites, the pressure will be on coach Raymond Domenech after a qualifiying tournament in which they were outshone by group winners Serbia. He will be wary of an Ireland side who went through a qualifying group containing world champions Italy and Bulgaria without losing a match. "We wanted to avoid Ukraine," French Football Federation (FFF) technical director Gerard Houllier said. "Ireland are competitive and tricky to play but we must not overrate them. "It's a slight advantage to play the return leg at home but the first leg is often the most important one because it either gives you confidence or ruins your hopes." Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney said he expected a tight battle. "I've spoken to the manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, he's quite relaxed about it. "We don't lose games by many goals, we don't win games by many goals. I wouldn't expect that pattern to change."

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ITN | October 19, 2009

Tags:. .russia. .ireland. .euro. .containing. .domenech