Heartbreaking. That’s all I can say about this match. Gut-wrenching, soul-wrenching, the very best kind of completely awful.

The pivot point of the match – and for the rest of time nothing else will be discussed – was Henry’s unjustly-allowed goal. (Technically it was Gallas’, but Henry had more than a hand in it. Two, in fact. Last pun. Promise.) Henry was also offside when the ball was played to him. It was egregious, and at the 103’’ minute the Irish simply didn’t have the time necessary to process the reverse. Mentally they were preparing for penalties, and that kind of mental momentum cannot be halted at once.

The referee and his staff have come in for solid, ringing opprobrium, with Giovanni Trappatoni asking why the match didn’t get “a stronger referee – an important referee.” I think this unfair. For the most part the officiating was consistent, if a bit tolerant, and Martin Hansson has a distinguished and nigh-unblemished career. Absent this call there could have been no cause for complaint. Given how crowded the box it doesn’t defy imagination to see how the officials could miss the move, and lost has been that the ref also failed to call a penalty against Ireland after goaltender Shay Given clattered into Nicholas Anelka in the box. That call would have been more contentious if the result hadn’t gone France’s way, of course. But then a questionable penalty is not in the same league as an obviously invalid goal.

From the start of the game the Irish had obviously sharpened and extended their interdiction strategy in an attempt to prevent the French taking longer-range shots from outside their tight defense. They were in strong form through most of the game, repeatedly depriving the hapless French front of momentum – and often the ball too. Despite the game’s quick tempo and the energetic attack by the Irish team Robbie Keane’s 35’’ minute goal looked that it might be the only one, despite the fact that they earned it in half the time it took France in similar circumstances. The French were booed out by their own crowd.

The French pressed harder in the second half, but Irish defenders got in front of the ball like it was a bullet aimed at the President. Notable efforts came from new man Paul MacShane and Sean St Ledger, on whom I think I have a crush despite his almost losing a tooth to a hard challenge. Meanwhile time and again opportunities came to the Irish only to be missed on the narrowest of margins, including a brilliantly saved free kick at 73’’. But the Irish couldn’t convert. The missed opportunities would cost them.

Inexplicably the narration on my feed switched from English to Chinese after Henry gave up his penalty, though you didn’t need it to see the angry defeat all over Ireland’s play. They were exhausted. They were fed up. Frankly, I couldn’t blame them. I was too.

The Football Association of Ireland has formally demanded a replay; Ireland correctly points out that there’s a precedent in a 2005 World Cup playoff between Bahrain and Uzbekistan based on a referee error that was not even decisive in the game. However I don’t think they’ll get it.

But that’s not the real tragedy. That’s the fact that this defeat is most terrible for France. I wrote before that not only do this French team do just good enough, stitching together their wins with duct tape and spit, but that it’s evocative of a national malaise that’s plagued their side since the trauma of their 2006 exit.  Coach Raymond Domenech is part of this; but a more significant role is played by the failure to replace Zidane and, indeed, Henry, who is starting to play even older than he looks.

France were better yesterday; but still not better enough. If you could send me back in time to last weekend and ask me to predict the match again I’d still pick Ireland. They’re the better team. They will continue to be the better team under Trappatoni. Meanwhile the French will limp into the World Cup under a cloud only to make an embarrassingly early exit. If they clear the round of 16, in fact, I’ll eat my shoe. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them bust out in the group stage. It will be only a very late mercy killing.

Sooner or later they will have to face the demons that speak in every bad pass, failed clearance and wide strike. Their victory will delay still further that process which can begin only with the replacement of Domenech (and perhaps the retirement of Henry). Forget 2010. France has a long time yet to spend in the wilderness, and all the failed refereeing in the world won’t help that.