France’s Lassana Diarra did not endear himself to the Irish nation after the first leg of the World Cup play-off in Croke park last weekend and is unlikely to be back in the good books anytime soon after insisting France "deserve" their place at the World Cup finals.
Diarra clashed with Keith Andrews after the first leg, when he allegedly suggested, in not so polite terms, that Ireland’s qualification bid was over because of the 1-0 defeat.
However, Diarra now says his dream has come true after Ireland won 1-0 in 90 minutes in Paris last night before being edged out by a controversial extra-time goal. France’s winner saw captain Thierry Henry handle the ball twice before laying it on for William Gallas to finish and secure a 2-1 aggregate win.
Ireland have appealed to Fifa and the French Football Federation to sanction a replay, but Diarra won’t be in favour of it.
"My dream is there for me to play in the World Cup in Africa, my parents' continent," Diarra told skysports.com. "It will be the best World Cup for me, I have watched World Cups on TV, now it is my time to show people that I can also play in the World Cup.
"My dream is to score a goal in the World Cup and win it with France.
"It will be difficult because teams in the World Cup are great teams but come June, we should be better and in good shape. We can definitely challenge and with a bit of luck you never know.
"Ireland was unlucky in the two games, but we deserve it because of our win in Dublin."
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)