Cheaty Henry robs Ireland of World Cup place

Good guy Thiery Henry's halo slipped tonight as he helped to cheat Ireland out of a place in the World Cup Finals.

Robbie Keane's first half goal had levelled the scores and taken the game into extra-time in the Stade de France when Henry lent a hand to proceedings.

With two minutes left in the first half of extra-time a cross deep into the Irish box was controlled twice by Henry's hand before he stabbed the ball across goal for William Gallas to bundle the ball into the net.

Shay Given was furious at being robbed by Henry with Damien Duff booked for his protests to the Swedish officials.

Referee Martin Hansson generally had a good match but missing Henry's double handball is unforgivable.

How Fifa react to this mistake will be interesting, surely Hansson can't be rewarded, like Henry, with a trip to South Africa to officiate at the finals.

A few minutes before the handball incident Hannson again demonstrated his lack of judgement as Nicolas Anelka threw himself to the ground Eduardo style in an attempt to win a penalty off Given.

The mindset in these situations has you believing that it was a good decision not to award a penalty but perhaps if Anelka had been booked Henry might have thought twice before handling as he created Gallas's goal.

Aiden McGeady was thrown on in place of Liam Lawrence for the second period of extra-time but was unable to make a decisive intervention.

The fall out from the game will be long and loud but it won't alter the fact that France and not Ireland will be in next month's World Cup draw.

Michel Platini's views will be interesting on the controversy, the need for video evidence at showpiece games was highlighted tonight while the experiment of 'goal-line' assistants in the Europa Cup could have prevented tonight's injustice.

The bottom line however is that the highest standards are required from top players, officials should be no different.

Officials that can't see the ball being handled TWICE within six yards of the goal-line shouldn't be allowed near parks football never mind World Cup play-offs.

The World Cup Finals are a goldmine for players with commercial deals matching and surpassing their football earnings, any company wishing to use the Henry image to push their sales next summer can expect a backlash from Ireland and beyond.

No doubt Henry's PR people will swing into action highlighting his wonderful work for charity but the image of him cheating his way to the World Cup Finals will be impossible to replace.

Spywatch: Form guide to Rapid Vienna

Rapid Vienna came from behind last night to beat SC Magna 3-1 ahead of Thursday's Europa League clash with Celtic.

Despite the win and their impressive European form Rapid are sitting in fourth place in the Austrian League, the league that made Filip Sebo a goal machine.

Rapid have a poor record away from home this season having won just once in four league matches with two draws and a defeat.

Their only away win was last Wednesday against KSV Superfund where Andreas Dober scored the only goal of the game.

PERFORMANCES

Looking at their form this season it does seem that they keep their best performances for European matches although even that has been far from spectacular.

There's no getting away from a 3-0 win over Bundesliga leaders SV Hamburg but their previous results weren't out of the ordinary.

To reach the Europa League Rapid put out Aston Villa on away goals, we all know Martin O'Neill's attitude to the Uefa Cup/Europa League and it's fair to say that Villa have quickly got over the ko from Rapid and are safely into their favoured position lurking around seventh place in the Premiership.

Rapid had to get through three qualifying rounds to reach the Europa League which says a lot about their recent European pedigree.

In the second qualifying round they saw off the Albania side Kllaznia with an 8-0 aggregate before toiling through against APOP/ Kinyras Peyias of Cyprus on a 4-3 aggregate to face Villa in the play off.

FORTRESS

Rapid don't have much of a recent pedigree but the old fortress Celtic Park is in need of some restoration with just one win from our last six home European ties.

Barcelona, Aalborg, Manchester United, Moscow Dynamo and Arsenal have all avoided defeat at Celtic Park in the last two years with only Vilareal, who had already qualified for the Champions League losing.

Tony Mowbray gave an honest yet brutal assessment of yesterday's win at St Mirren which will be well received by supporters but probably not as welcome in the dressing room.

Everything that the Celtic manager said publicly will have been told directly to the players but in any walk of life it's not pleasing to hear public criticism from the gaffer.

Working with the same group of players Mowbray has to raise their performance levels to get victories over Rapid and Rangers to send the club into the international break on a high.

CHALLENGING

Both games will be tough and challenging but most of the players currently at Celtic have came through tougher challenges successfully in the recent past.

Two victories, even if they are in a similar style to the St Mirren match will be warmly welcomed by the support.

The feel-good factor expected after Gordon Strachan's departure hasn't yet happened even though the supporters now have a manager that they can relate to and respect.

Mowbray has to be all things to all men but a couple of victories over the next week will grant him some breathing time as he attempts to put his mark on the team after admitting after the Hapoel defeat that 'We are a million miles from where I want this club to be'.

The Rapid Red Herring

by Joe McHugh The build up to next week's game with Rapid Vienna is in danger of becoming ridiculous after the outbreak of fake outrage over Red Strip Syndrome.

Of all the things that the cheats from Austria got upto 25 years ago I'm certain that the colour of their strip was amongst the least offensive.

For the record Rapid wore blue on their night of shame at Celtic Park, around that time every second European side to face Celtic seemed to come up with a blue strip with Real Madrid and Juventus also wearing blue.

Sadly Frank McGarvey, seen scoring against Rangers at Ibrox above, seems to be getting drawn in to a phony controversy about the Rapid match. The colour of their strip or an apology for their behaviour in 1984 are totally irrelevant.

Putting a few goals past the cheating Austrians will be far more satisfying than any PR stunts.

SINISTER
Much more nasty and sinister than the colour of their shirt were the efforts of everyone at Rapid to cheat their way through the tie, so successful were they that they almost cheated their way to the trophy before Everton intervened and prevented them taking the silverware.

On Thursday night all that matters is that Rapid are beaten on the park, nothing else.

Tommy Burns and the class of 84 would no doubt approve of any Celtic win but revenge doesn't arrive 25 years later. The events of 84 are history, not forgotten or forgiven but mainly irrelevant to Thursday's match.

Despite being inconsistent in the league the Celtic side of 1984/85 was capable of almost anything on their day.

McGarvey and McClair were regular scorers, Alan McInally was emerging and a striker from Watford was about to join the club, behind them a midfield with the ability, strength and experience of MacLeod, McStay, Grant and Burns was an obvious asset.

DEMOLISHED
The Cup Winners Cup was probably that teams level. They had demolished Sporting Lisbon the previous season, beaten a useful Gent side before Rapid came along and robbed them of two years European experience.

Although it was far from a golden era of success for the club the win over Sporting and the dramatic triumphs in the 85 Scottish Cup and 86 title success will be remembered longer and fonder than most.

REACTIONS
Younger readers will find the Rapid case fascinating, taking place in a distant time before the internet and with four television channels without rolling sports news and instant reactions demanded.

How Uefa managed to uphold Rapid's appeal, giving them the replay they sought while increasing their fine for their behaviour in Glasgow is murky stuff. Even a one-off play-off would have been fairer than asking Davie Hay's side to overturn a 3-1 deficit for the second time.

From hazy memory the appeal panel consisted of three Uefa delegates, the Bulgarian equivalent of George Peat (Airdrie and Stenhousemuir) and two other such nobodies, overturning the original verdict which most Celtic fans deemed fair and reasonable with Celtic fined for the supporters behaviour while Rapid took the majority of the blame.

Over the next week all sorts of reminders and flashbacks to the events of 84 are bound to appear.

There is a curiosity amongst younger supporters as to what the hell went on and how on earth Rapid managed to cheat their way through the tie.

PROTESTING
The then Celtic board seemed typically ineffective, there was no talk of protesting or withdrawing, the replayed tie could have been taken to Aberdeen but Old Trafford offered more cash even though the gate money was split between the clubs, Uefa and Manchester United.

There were some voices calling for Celtic to withdraw in protest but they went largely unheard in the stampede to Old Trafford and 40,000 plus Celtic fans headed down the M74 in December.

Tony Mowbray has enough problems and decisions to make regarding his Celtic side without revisiting the mid-eighties.

ESSENTIAL
After the defeat to Hapoel Tel Aviv two wins over Rapid and Hamburg are essential to put Celtic in the hunt for Europa League qualification.

No doubt the cheats from Vienna and the hard of thinking will concoct up some more nonsense over the next week in an attempt to stoke up emotions before the match.

Celtic fans would do well to body swerve the sideshows and channel their support into backing the team and giving Rapid another gubbing just like they received on their last visit to Celtic Park.

Celtic 3-0 Rapid will do me nicely.

Paddy McCourt moves up a level

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