A controversial night in Paris last Wednesday saw France reach the World Cup finals at the expense of the Republic of Ireland, but as we are all aware, that is not the half of it. Thierry Henry's handball allowed William Gallas to put the French 2-1 ahead on aggregate and condemn the Irish to a second successive failed World Cup qualifying campaign.
I don't think Henry would have set foot onto the pitch with the intention of cheating, but his helping hand in France's goal was just that. He certainly made sure that nobody would talk about Nicolas Anelka's dive in extra time, which the referee correctly waved away as no penalty.
If the French need such tactics to beat a dogged Irish performance, then I hope they are proud of themselves. I did think they could be one of the teams with a genuine chance of winning the World Cup. Although I am now not so sure about that, they still have a squad of real quality that can find a way to win, whether by fair means or foul.
That said, the Irish probably should have closed the game out in the 90 minutes in Paris, and Roy Keane, as harsh as his press conference sounded, was just about right in his criticism of his nation's performance over the 210 minutes of the tie.
Everything Tottenham touched on Sunday turned to gold as they humiliated Wigan 9-1 at White Hart Lane in the Barclays Premier League. What was even worse for the visitors was that it was only 1-0 to the home side at half time before Spurs, and in particular Jermain Defoe, ran riot. He proved his reputation as one of the game's greatest finishers and in my opinion, it would be a travesty if he is not in the England squad to fly to South Africa next summer.
And with Liverpool and Manchester City stuttering of late - they played a 2-2 draw this weekend, City's sixth draw in a row - Harry Redknapp must be starting to believe that he can take his team into the Champions League places.
As good as Tottenham were, and indeed are, Wigan should be ashamed of themselves for their capitulation. A Premier League outfit should not be losing games 9-1. It wasn't the number of goals in Chris Kirkland's net that was the worst thing, but more the manner of the goals conceded. It was as if they had given up the fight and Spurs basically walked the ball in towards the end.
My team. Nottingham Forest, increased their unbeaten run to nine Coca-Cola Championship games, and are still the only unbeaten away side in the entire English league. They deserved a point at a poor Middlesbrough side, and it was another point earned after going 1-0 behind away.
By my reckoning Forest have fallen behind in each of the last five away games and not lost any of them. Reds sides of recent years would probably have lost all five games by large margins, so there is excitement about the improvement on that front. One concern for me though, is that it is now four successive draws in the league. Although I am very happy that Billy Davies is turning Forest into one of the most difficult teams to beat, does that prevent the players from going up the extra gear and winning games, especially away from home?
There are two home games coming up against Doncaster and Leicester, and I think Forest need to win both of them to boost their faint play-off hopes.
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