After the narrow victory at Croke Park, the French cockerel crowed, but crowed cautiously.

The French press carried jubilant headlines such as "We believe" or "A Great Start." The daily sports newspaper L'Equipe, strung a joyous and poetic headline across two pages: "A cloudless sky, blue with promise."

The small print of the coverage told a rather different story, however. Both L'Equipe and Le Parisien made the French goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris, 'man of the match,' despite claiming that Ireland had scarcely troubled Les Bleus.

All the papers stressed that 1-0 was a "dangerous" scoreline, which could become a "trap" if Ireland snatched an early goal at the Stade de France on Wednesday night.

The row on the pitch after the match between Lassana Diarra and two Irish players got limited coverage -- partly, perhaps, because the comments of Giovanni Trapattoni at the post-match press conference came almost too late for the last French newspaper deadlines.

The Journal du Dimanche dismissed Mr Trapattoni"s suggestion that a French player had "insulted" the people of Ireland as a "ploy to stoke up his players before the return match."

Perhaps in retaliation for pre-match criticism by Ireland players of the French coach, Raymond Domenech, the Irish manager also came in for a subtle slagging in L'Equipe.

In its main match report, the sports newspaper suggested that Ireland had been less physical and less scary than France had expected, because the players were torn between their natural, "tempestuous" game and the cautious tactics of their Italian "technician."

Faded

"The pouring rain, the gales and storms we expected from Ireland remained no more than a faded post-card," said Vincent Duluc, the newspaper"s chief football writer. "Blinded by the science of their Italian manager, there was nothing very much Irish about the Irish.

"Every time they tracked back, or took the cautious option, you could see that their great dream was to put the Blues under pressure by taking a 0-0 scoreline into the second leg on Wednesday night.

"On what we saw last night, there is whole world of ambition and talent between the two teams."

The Journal du Dimanche took a similar line. It said the match resembled a "chess game between 70-year-olds" more than the "tempestuous" game of "kick and rush" which French teams traditionally expected in Ireland.

"In an atmosphere less hostile than they expected, the Blues rarely trembled -- except for the moment in the 28th minute when everything could have changed, How could the Ireland midfielder, Liam Lawrence, have missed the goal which opened in front of him?

"Ireland demonstrated their limits more than their virtues," Olivier Joly continued in the Journal du Dimanche. "They played mostly not to lose, leaving France...to swim in a bath of lukewarm Guinness."

It was noticeable, however, that both L'Equipe and the Journal du Dimanche named the Lyon goalkeeper as France's best player. L'Equipe gave Lloris eight out of ten and the Journal du Dimanche 7.5. If Ireland hardly threatened, how could Lloris have been 'Man of the match'?

The highest score for an Ireland player was 6, shared by Whelan, Duff and Andrews.

L'Equipe also gave six to the entire French outfield line-up, except Andre-Pierre Gignac and Yoann Gourcuff -- both disappointing on the night -- who each got five.

Le Monde on its website -- it had no edition yesterday -- noted that the tone of the France players changed after the match.

Their initial comments were confident, even cock-a-hoop, but -- apparently under instructions -- their later assessments were far more cautious.

Nicolas Anelka said: "We are not going overboard. We will play to win in the second match because it will only take one Irish goal to put us in trouble."

Imposing

Domenech was his usual uncommunicative self.

"I feel exactly the same way that I did before the match. Anything could still happen, This is just half-time... The Ireland team has got qualities. It is capable of playing, imposing its style, responding. We have to be vigilant."

As Le Journal du Dimanche pointed out, Ireland"s best hope is that -- despite these cautious comments -- the France players will take the field at the Stade de France thinking that they have already booked their tickets for South Africa.

- John Lichfield in Paris

Irish Independent