Ireland face France in a world cup 2010 play off next month. Two legs. Home on Saturday, away on Wednesday. Win over the two legs and we’re off to South Africa for the 2010 world cup. Lose and France will book their place in South Africa.

photo credit: sam shot-put-ski

Although France are a big glamour side, they’re in decline and struggled to impress in the group stages which is why they’re slugging it out with us in the play offs. They’re still odds on favourites to qualify and any neutral would back them, so it means Ireland have nothing to lose…

Ireland play well against big glamour sides – France, Italy, Portugal, Holland, Germany etc… we’ve gotten results against all of them over the last few campaigns so France will know they’ll have to earn whatever they get.

If all goes to plan i should be at both matches which will mean a trip to Paris / France for me. Knocking the French out of the world cup in their own backyard would make for an incredible atmosphere (from an irish point of view) and would leave the entire country buzzing right up until next summer.

My head tells me it will be a close contest, with Ireland bottling it in France having gotten a decent result in Dublin (not losing). Hopefully i’m proved wrong!