Ireland will want more than the hand of history on their shoulder in Paris on Wednesday night. They will need it to be clutching a magic wand.

If Ireland are to qualify for next summer's World Cup, they will have to win for the first time in Paris and beat a calibre of team they haven't defeated away from home in a generation.

But there is nothing to suggest that this is a France side that cannot be beaten and hope will rear its ugly head between now and then.

The French stumbled to this victory through a wickedly deflected Nicolas Anelka shot. If they qualify, they will want to end the disharmony and dismiss Raymond Domenech to give themselves a chance in next summer's finals. Ireland are not ready to wave them through just yet. If Scotland can win there, anything can happen.

But the indications that Ireland felt they had blown their chance were clear when the two teams had to be separated at the final whistle. "One of their famous players insulted our player very badly," said Giovanni Trapattoni. Was it the captain, Henry? "I name the sin and not the sinner."

Richard Dunne was particularly frustrated and Ireland will know they have lost for the first time in a competitive game under Trapattoni to a side they could have beaten.

"The fair result was a draw," Trapattoni insisted afterwards, "but now we play the second half in Paris."

An early Irish goal could change things on Wednesday but maybe not by much. Ireland could have scored in either half last night, but France should have had a penalty when Given brought down Patrice Evra.

The best Irish chance came in the first half to Liam Lawrence but as they chased the game in their ragged, spirited way, Glenn Whelan nearly equalised. "That was a big chance," Trapattoni admitted.

The body language experts had studied Domenech's appearance with Thierry Henry at the Airport Hotel on Friday night hoping to discover further signs of discord but all you could see was what you wanted to see.

Soon, we would hear all we wanted to hear with the stories breaking just before kick-off of a row between Henry and Domenech at the French base in Stillorgan yesterday. It might not have been Brazil and Ronaldo in Paris in '98 but it would do.

Arsene Wenger recently told of how Henry lived for football, saying that, during his time at Arsenal, he could call him at home at ten o' clock in the evening on any night of the week and Henry, then in his early 20s, would be there, waiting to talk about football. Domenech's calls would probably be rejected.

But the tension was everywhere. There was some pre-match commotion in the press box when a number of French journalists found themselves without desks. Their solution was to grab a table from a storeroom at Croke Park and attempt to bring it into the stand. Health and safety naturally was brought into play by their hosts.

"The fire officer won't allows this, lads, you can't do it."

"But we must, we have no desks," they cried as one.

A stand-off ensued with the desk being pushed and pulled through the doorway before one French journalist dismissed the Irish with a patrician wave and the damning: "You are worse than Cyprus." They must have had a bad time there once as well.

Trapattoni wanted calm and a recognition that this was a game over two legs, but in the frenzy beforehand, it was hard to believe that the game, qualification and even the future of the world wouldn't be decided in the first, crazy minutes.

If the French disunity was a blessing, it was certainly very well disguised as they exposed flaws in the Irish defence in those early minutes, with Nicolas Anelka and Bacary Sagna enjoying themselves so much on the right that Henry attempted to move to that flank too. The sight of him returning to the left was perhaps an indication that he hasn't got full control of the team.

Henry was anonymous there and the new Zidane, Yoann Gourcuff, only showed that they will not replace Zidane that easily.

Ireland played with all the qualities you would hope for in the team. There wasn't a player who didn't lack heart and courage and France found it hard to find a weakness. The defence was immense, Robbie Keane tireless and Kevin Doyle brave and selfless.

Duff had moments when he appeared to be the street urchin once again, but as the teams tired, Ireland found their inability to keep the ball a handicap as they chased the game. Stephen Hunt was sent on but he is another to give 100 per cent effort and Trapattoni might not miss him, but Ireland would have created more if Andy Reid could have come from the bench.

He will not be an option on Wednesday. Instead Ireland will look for the goal to take the game to penalties and extra time. "They cannot play like this in Paris," Trapattoni said. "They will have to come out." Although he wasn't exactly promising all-out attack. "We can score from a free-kick or corner."

Last night, the French showed they can score from a deflection. "We are Irish and we keep going," Trap said. "In 50 years I have seen many things." If Ireland pull this off, he will have seen it all.

- DION FANNING at Croke Park

Sunday Independent