Björn Kuipers will not be a popular man in Bosnia-Herzegovina for some time to come.
The Dutch referee awarded Ireland a soft first-half penalty when Daryl Murphy had a cross strike the arm of Ervin Zukanovic.
Jon Walters calmly slotted the spot-kick home and Ireland never looked back.
Speaking after the match, Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko tried his best to stay calm when asked about the contentious decision.
“We can’t win a game where we don’t play,” he began.
“In the end we did well, although the referee was 70/30 in favour of the Irish. I would never in my life give the penalty he gave against us.”
Dzeko composed himself as he conceded Ireland were the better team over two legs.
He said, “We do not deserve to play the European Championship. We are not better than Ireland. If we were better, we would have won and went to France.
“The fans are always with us. We feel sad ourselves but we are mostly sorry for them.”
