#6 France vs Ireland 18/11/2009
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After winning the first leg in Dublin, France looked through to the 2010 World Cup but the Irish had other ideas. They had come back from losing their home game 1-0 after a sensational equalising goal by Robbie Keane at the Stade de France. And then the French were struggling and struggling badly, with the Irish going into extra time the better team –until the decision that made Thierry Henry an enemy to Irish men and women till his last breath.
The Frenchman blatantly used his hand to stop the ball from going outside, not once but twice before setting up Willam Gallas for the winning goal, a moment that has hung over the forward’s head since.
The injustice wasn’t just the fact that the goal stood; the Irish had deserved a win from what was a huge heartful performance that has become unique to any underdog, and they were the underdogs against an impressive French team. Trapattoni’s side dominated at the Stade de France that day, continuing their trend of beating big teams and while they almost never have world class players in their midst, they almost always have a resilience beyond other sides.
Unfortunately for them, luck and Henry’s hand wasn’t on their side that day, but they may have taken pleasure in the fact that France was knocked out in the group stages itself, losing to Mexico and South Africa!!
#5 Argentina vs England 23/07/1966
England and Argentina have one of the intense rivalries in world football, possibly one of the only classical cross-continental rivalries that exist. But it all started in the 1966 quarter-final of the World Cup, where Argentina progressed after wins over Spain and Switzerland. England, on the other hand, beat Mexico and France but drew against Uruguay.
The referee for the match, Rudolf Kreitlein from West Germany made a call that is till today considered one of the strangest in World Cup history. In the 25th minute, the Argentine captain Antonio Rattin was suddenly expelled from the match (red cards hadn’t been introduced yet). After a long discussion with the ref, Rattin refused to leave the game.
The reason for Rattin’s expulsion? Kreitlein said that he didn’t like the way the Argentine captain was looking at him and thus had decided to remove him from the match!!
But despite the entire match being overshadowed by this decision, the match wasn’t a violent one, nothing in comparison to what Portugal did to Brazil in the first round. But Alf Ramsey’s comment after the match was uncalled for in which he referred to the Argentine players as animals. He even went so far as to stop his English players from exchanging shirts with the Argentine side, who outplayed that English side despite being down to ten men.
