France (1) v Rep of Ireland (0) - kick-off 8pm:SOME YEARS back an Irish journalist at the Barcelona Olympics caused quite a stir amongst his English colleagues by getting the wrong end of the stick regarding an agency story, reporting back to Dublin that the British runner Steve Crabb rather than the German one, Katrin Krabbe, had failed a drugs test.

It was late at night but his employers informed theirs in London and for several hours bewildered British athletics officials were besieged by frantic hacks.

A minor headline on the front of yesterday's France Football magazine might have prompted a similarly exciting misunderstanding.

"Lloris test positif" it said, prompting this reporter's heart to skip a beat. It turns out, of course, they were merely reckoning that the inexperienced Lyon goalkeeper had acquitted himself well under pressure at Croke Park on Saturday.

Tonight, it will be the Ireland team who must come through their test with flying colours if they are to salvage their dream of going to next summer's World Cup in South Africa.

It will take the team's best result in a qualifying game for at least 22 years - arguably ever - but there is at least little to lose in going for all out in the wake of a home defeat that leaves Giovanni Trapattoni's side as rank outsiders to progress.

The Italian has an unchanged, and so equally limited, hand to play this evening at the Stade de France. For the most part, his players actually performed quite well at the weekend and there seems little their manager can do now except ask them to go out there, do it again and hope things turn out better.

Without the couple of players who might have presented tactical alternatives, it will be the same approach and, he confirmed last night, the same team. The hope will be this time their combination of energy and endeavour will be enough to allow them engineer the breakthrough that evaded them in the first leg.

The French too will be almost unchanged from the side that started on Saturday. Eric Abidal's injury means Sebastien Squillaci will probably come in at the back but there is no huge qualitative difference between the pair, although the Barcelona defender is reckoned to be slightly better when the ball is on the ground, his replacement that bit more effective in the air.

Both, though, are prone to the odd lapse in concentration and having passed up one opportunity to capitalise on such an error late on in Croke Park, the Irish will clearly need to pounce if offered such a gift again this evening.

Ireland's rather slender hopes of progressing would appear, indeed, to rest to a significant degree on the quality of the French performance, for the home side's most formidable strength, its attacking unit, equips the hosts particularly well to pick off a side in precisely the predicament that Trapattoni's men now find themselves in.

Given his side's tendency over the course of this campaign to take and then surrender early leads, it might seem their best hope lies in scoring late before, as the veteran Italian has suggested they might, taking the tie all the way to penalties.

The problem is that, on the one hand, if the game does remain scoreless until the closing stages, the French will be waiting for their visitors to start pushing forward and taking risks with the intention of exploiting the space left in order to score again. But even if, on the other hand, Ireland level the tie up and make it to extra-time, Saturday's performance would suggest the effort involved in achieving the feat will have left them dead on their feet and struggling to get through extra-time.

A potentially more plausible scenario is the Irish start strongly and grab a goal then steady things as the sense that the home side just might have blown it sinks in around the stadium and the pressure starts to mount on the hosts to do something about it.

Clearly, though, the win, whatever way it might come, will be made that much more achievable if they can keep the ball more effectively than they did on Saturday and push the game a little further up the field.

Managing both would give the Irish a chance of containing their opponents more effectively, creating more chances from play and possibly winning a few more of the free kicks on which so many hopes had been pinned before the weekend.

Sadly, these are rather linked to the fundamental limitations of the group at Trapattoni's disposal and are not matters easily addressed on the training ground during the few days between two games of this magnitude.

It is not encouraging that in 59 previous two-legged ties (leading, like this one, to direct qualification) over the course of the entire World Cup's history, few sides have lost the first leg at home but not one has ever recovered from the setback to progress. But there is still hope.

France have their flaws and Ireland have shown a capacity to score against decent sides during this campaign. Still, Giovanni Trapattoni's men have to really "turn up" this evening if they are to pull off what would be a quite remarkable victory.

Even then, they may need a significant stroke of luck . . . perhaps a guest appearance from the Hugo Lloris who played against Marseille recently and conceded five goals as opposed to the one who came through Saturday night with flying colours.

Rep of Ireland:Given (Manchester City); O'Shea (Manchester United), St Ledger (Middlesbrough), Dunne (Aston Villa), Kilbane (Hull City); Lawrence (Stoke City), Whelan (Stoke City), Andrews (Blackburn Rovers), Duff (Fulham); Doyle (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Keane (Tottenham Hotspur).

France (probable):Lloris (Lyon); Sagna (Arsenal), Squillaci (Seville), Gallas (Arsenal), Evra (Manchester United); L Diarra (Real Madrid), A Diarra (Bordeaux); Anelka (Chelsea), Gourcuff (Bordeaux), Henry (Barcelona); Gignac (Toulouse).