The Republic of Ireland's hopes of making the World Cup finals suffered a blow after they were drawn against France in the play-offs.
To make matters more difficult for Giovanni Trapattoni's Irish side, France will also have the advantage of playing the second leg of the play-offs at home.
In the other play-offs, Portugal will play Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece will face Ukraine and Russia take on Slovenia.
Trapattoni had criticised FIFA for seeding the play-offs - Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Slovenia were all unseeded meaning they could not play each other.
France, beaten finalists in the last World Cup, were viewed as the team to avoid along with Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Irish, who last played in the finals in 2002, had hoped for an easier fixture against Greece but in the draw in Zurich, Everton's South African midfielder Francois Pienaar drew them first out of the hat against the French.
Trapattoni at least can feel relieved that the Republic do not have to play Russia on the artificial pitch at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium.
Former manager Gerard Houllier believes France have a "50-50 chance" of qualifying for South Africa following the draw. France are ninth on FIFA's world rankings but could only finish second behind Serbia in their qualifying group.
"Ireland are one of the toughest opponents for Les Bleus," said Houllier, who was in Zurich for the draw as a representative of France Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes. "Beforehand I had a hunch that France would draw Ireland and I was right. They will be difficult. Nobody wanted to draw Ireland because they know they've finished their qualification group unbeaten."
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Honestly I'm actually happy we got france. Were underdogs which in my eyes is a gud thing nd i knw the lads will do they best, will play there hearts out. Belive lads in urselfs and keep the heads up. Bring some popcorn to france and give it to the french so they wont run out of it while they be watching us on the tv in world cup. come on the boys in green.
What's all the fuss about? Had Ireland been given the chance to hand pick its opponent, which team would it have fancied? Everybody at this stage is tough......so get on with it. Good luck to the Irish team. They can do it, if they just beleive in themselves and stop thinking about something they have no power to change..
the seeded draw is a farce , everyone knows its so the big guns get thru , its shambolic , lets hope ireland do the frogs an id love to see a few more upsets just to stick it up those cheating @#$% arses
104.fifa are nothing but scum, why dont they scrap qualifying and hand pick who they want in the world cup because thats basically what there doing, its a right kick in the @#$% for teams like ireland bosnia and slovenia who have done so well to make the play offs having been told from the start it would be an open draw and then have these idiots seed it because france and portugal might not make it. I wonder how much that @#$% platini over at uefa had to do with it thinking his team will draw portugal and get knocked out.
FIFA FAIR PLAY my a r s e
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