William Gallas scored a disputed overtime goal that lifted France over Ireland and into next year's World Cup.
Greece, Slovenia, Portugal and Algeria also advanced to next year's tournament Wednesday on the final day of qualifying.
The last berth for next year's field in South Africa was to be determined later Wednesday, when Uruguay was at home with a 1-0 lead over Costa Rica.
The 32 nations will be drawn into eight groups on Dec. 4 in Cape Town, and the first World Cup on the African continent opens June 11.
Gallas' goal in the 103rd minute at Saint-Denis, outside Paris, gave France a 1-1 tie and a 2-1 victory in the home-and-home, total-goals playoff.
Robbie Keane put Ireland ahead in the 33rd minute, and the playoff appeared headed to penalty kicks before Gallas put the ball in from close range past goalkeeper Shay Given. Thierry Henry appeared to control the ball twice with his hand before knocking it into Gallas' path.
Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni was livid and had to be calmed by officials.
In the other European playoffs, Greece won 1-0 at Ukraine on Dimitrios Salpigidis' 31st-minute goal for a 2-1 aggregate victory; Slovenia upset visiting Russia 1-0 behind Zlatko Dedic's 44th-minute goal to leave the aggregate tied 2-2 and advance on away goals; and Portugal won 1-0 at Bosnia-Herzegovina on Raul Meireles' 56th minute for a 2-0 aggregate win that gave FIFA player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo a World Cup trip.
Algeria qualified for its first World Cup since 1986, beating Egypt 1-0 in a tiebreaker playoff at Khartoum, Sudan, on Antar Yahya's goal in the 39th minute. Yahya scored with a right-footed volley that beat goalkeeper Essam El Hadary.
Egypt, whose only World Cup appearances were in 1934 and 1990, forced the playoff by beating Algeria 2-0 with an injury-time goal in Cairo last Saturday that left them even atop Africa Group C and set off several violent outbursts.
The embassy and sites of Egyptian businesses such as Egypt Air and telecom group Orascom were attacked on Saturday. Several Algerian players had been injured before the match in Cairo as Egypt fans pelted Algeria's team bus with rocks.
Security was stepped up near the Egyptian Embassy in the Algerian capital, Algiers, but there were no signs of violence. The streets of Algiers quickly filled with celebrating citizens, some setting off fireworks. Traffic came to a standstill in the center of town.
Women in hijabs, or veils, were seen brandishing the Algerian flag, a rare site in the North African nation.
The jubilant atmosphere crossed the Mediterranean to Marseille and Paris, where there are large Algerian populations. Streams of youths hanging from cars, honking horns and brandishing the Algerian flag made victory laps down Paris' Champs-Elysees.
In Gelsenkirchen, Lukas Podolski scored his second goal of the match in injury time for a 2-2 exhibition tie against Ivory Coast in Germany's first game since goalkeeper Robert Enke committed suicide last week.
In other exhibition games, the United States allowed three second-half goals in a 3-1 loss at Denmark; Giorgio Chiellini scored on a header following a corner kick in the 28th minute to give defending World Cup champion a 1-0 victory over visiting Sweden; and European champion Spain won 5-1 at Austria on two goals by David Villa and one each by Cesc Fabregas, Daniel Guiza and Pablo Hernandez.
At Donetsk, Salpigidis scored for Greece, which will be making its second World Cup appearance after going 0-3 at the 1994 tournament in the United States. Salpigidis took a through pass from Georgios Samaras and put the ball in for his second international goal in 29 appearances.
``We've heard a lot of criticism during the qualifiers and this is an answer to our critics,'' Salpigidis said. ``We never stopped believing in ourselves.''
At Maribor, Dedic took a 25-yard pass from Valter Birsa and slotted the ball to the left corner past goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev. The difference in the playoff, a rare blemish on the career record of Russia coach Guus Hiddink, was Nejc Pecnik's 87th-minute goal in Slovenia's 2-1 loss at Moscow last Saturday.
Slovenia, which gained independence in 1991, went 0-3 at the 2002 World Cup.
``My guys became immortal!'' Slovenia coach Matjaz Kek said.
Fans waited to find out whether Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor would fulfill his promise to clean players' boots if they qualified. Pahor told Slovenian television that he followed through.
``I didn't do it thoroughly, but enough for the trip to South Africa,'' he told Slovenian television.
At Zenica, Nani's pass found Meireles, who scored on a low shot in the 56th minute. Portugal, which lost to France in the 2006 World Cup semifinals advanced despite not having Ronaldo, sidelined with an ankle injury.
``It is difficult to comfort the boys. They are devastated,'' Bosnia coach Miroslav Blazevic said.
