WHATEVER about liberté and egalité, there was not much fraternité on the Croke Park pitch on around 9.50pm on Saturday night.

The pushing and shoving that followed the final whistle from Herr Felix Brych was certainly not all-out war, and not even a scrap on the same scale as the post-match fisticuffs in Bursa, when Ireland lost out in a play-off for a place in a major finals. It was more a case of handbags at six paces.

But Keith Andrews was insistent that the after-match row was kicked off by a "disrespectful" comment from his opposite number Lasanna Diarra, which the Blackburn man said was typical of this French team.

Tension

The row and its aftermath as it is played out in the press will only heighten the tension ahead of Wednesday's second leg in Paris, as Andrews was forthright in his views when he spoke to the press after training in Malahide yesterday. A number of French journalists were present when he made his comments about Real Madrid star Diarra ensuring that his views will be reported back to the people -- and players -- back home.

Andrews refused to reveal just what Diarra had said to make the man from Artane so vexed.

"He has made a disrespectful comment," said Andrews when asked if Diarra had insulted the Irish team or people.

"I don't want to say exactly what he said, he knows what he said. It was a disrespectful comment which probably typifies them, to be honest. It was typical of him and the way he was.

"There was a bit of niggle between us in the game, anyway, but that's just football and it happens. When the final whistle went, I was hunkered down a little. I saw him walking towards me and I thought he was going to shake my hand. And he made a remark and, to be fair, I lost my head a little bit. You don't really expect if from a fellow professional. It's a massive two-legged tie, it's very pivotal and crunch time in the tie.

"It's only half way finished and for a person to come out with something like that, it's very disappointing. All our lads are aware of it so we'll see what happens on Wednesday," added Andrews, a statement of intent from the Blackburn Rovers midfielder that Ireland do not plan to cede that World Cup place to France just yet, as Andrews in particular has waited too long to get this far in the game to miss out and wait another four years for a chance to get to the World Cup.

"I don't think it's going to take any extra motivation, there's a World Cup at stake. This is a very minor thing, is it not?" he said in relation to his spat with Diarra.

"We're going there and we need to score, first and foremost. If we get two then we will be flying. A clean sheet is obviously vitally important. This is nothing, there's a World Cup at stake, the whole country wants to get to the World Cup.

"Did the French team show us respect? To be honest, I don't know. They should do after Saturday night if they did not before.

"They were certainly put through their paces on Saturday night, as we've shown what we have. We have fantastic spirit throughout the team, staff and in the fans. If they did not expect us to have spirit going into the game, they do now.

"It will be a fantastic evening to go from where I have been to the game on Wednesday evening," he said "To use a cliché, it will be a dream. The last time that the lads played in France I was just watching it in a pub in Wolverhampton with my cousins and my mates. This time around, to be hopefully playing in it, it will be a fantastic evening.

"Obviously we were bitterly disappointed with the result. It's gone now and we realise it's going to very tough on Wednesday night but we are still very confident that we can progress over the two legs.

Positive

"We proved that we can cause them problems, we limited them to very few chances and while we're disappointed we want to crack on now by being positive in the new few days."

Ireland did a very light training session in sunny Malahide yesterday morning and the players then had the rest of the day off. Half the squad opted to see more sport by going back to Croke Park (gluttons for punishment?) to see the Ireland-Australia rugby game, while the others took advantage of the free afternoon to see their families or catch up on some much-needed sleep.

"We have already touched on it, we need to be positive in the next few days. Saturday night was very disappointing around the hotel and on the way back from the game. But we are back 'on it' and looking forward to the game," added Andrews, who says that the pressure is on France for the second leg.

"Quite possibly, as there have been times when we have taken the lead during this campaign but then we have tended to go on the back foot a little bit and conceded. We had played our best stuff so psychologically it could work out quite well," he says.

"Their fans will be expecting free-flowing football and wanting them to go on and score two, three or four goals. So, certainly they are the ones who will be under pressure."

- Aidan Fitzmaurice