Bahrain had secured a 1-1 draw in the Caribbean on Saturday, but were outplayed in the play-off's second leg.Wrexham's giant defender Dennis Lawrence scored the goal, outjumping the Bahrain defence to powerfully head in a Dwight Yorke corner on 49 minutes. In the closing stages Russell Latapy rattled the bar for Trinidad, while Hussain Ali Baba was red-carded. In a scrappy first-half Bahrain keeper Ali Hassan made a brave save, throwing himself at Stern John's feet, after the on-loan Derby striker broke clear.

Bahrain struggled throughout against a physically stronger Trinidad team, with the home side's best chance stemming from Kelvin Jack's misjudgment in coming for a high ball five minutes before the interval. The Trinidad keeper was rescued by Rangers defender Marvin Andrews who cleared the danger. After Lawrence's goal Ahmed Hassan's low curling free-kick hit the side-netting, though Jack had the shot covered. In chaotic scenes at the end Ali Baba was dismissed after referee Oscar Ruiz was man-handled. The Bahrainis had been furious the referee disallowed an Ahmed Hassan goal when he kicked the ball out of Jack's hands.

Bahrain coach Luka Peruzovic did not rule out an appeal to Fifa appeal over the disallowed goal. "I want to make myself 100 %t sure of what happened before advising the Bahrain Football Association," said Peruzovic. "We will watch the action replay before taking any decision." Moments after the sending off Jack made up for his earlier eccentric keeping when he spectacualrly tipped over the bar a Talal Yusuf shot. With a population of just over one million Trinidad will be the least populated country taking part in the 2006 finals in Germany.

Trinidad are only the fourth Caribbean side to reach the finals following Cuba in 1938, Haiti in 1974 and Jamaica in 1998. "It was a very tough match and it was difficult logistically to get the players ready for such an important match after all that travelling," said Trinidad coach Leo Beenhakker.

16 November 2005, by FIFAworldcup.com

Trinidad and Tobago coach Leo Beenhakker hailed his side's qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ as one of the highlights of his lengthy career. The Dutchman guided his side to a 2-1 aggregate win over Bahrain, their 1-0 victory in Manama on Wednesday evening securing their passage to Germany 2006 - and a place at the finals for the first time ever.

Trinidad finished fourth in the CONCACAF final qualifying group to enter into the play-off against Bahrain. They did so despite a dreadful start to qualifying that saw them amass just one point from the opening three games.

But, with Beenhakker's arrival in place of Bertille St Clair, the team's fortunes took a turn for the better, culminating in the their first berth on the world stage. "If you work 40 years in football you have several highlights and this was, of course, one of them," said Beenhakker.

"When we started in May after three matches the team only had one point and nobody gave us a chance. In the qualifying matches it went better and better and this, of course, is the result.

With Bahrain securing an away goal in the first leg in Port of Spain on Saturday, T&T went into the second leg knowing they needed to score to have any chance of progressing. Four minutes after half-time that vital goal came, towering defender Dennis Lawrence meeting Dwight Yorke's corner powerfully to score past Ali Hassan and force the home side to open up and chase a goal of their own.

Despite several near-misses, Bahrain could not find the answer to prevent the Caribbean islanders qualifying for Germany. "First of all we are very happy that we did it," said Beenhakker. "I have to say what I said before playing the two matches that Bahrain was a tough opponent for us.

"They did a very good job in the first match in Trinidad and Tobago. I think we had, here, a good first half-hour. After that we made the same mistake as in Trinidad that we forgot to play football. We scored a good goal, a wonderful goal and after that it was a very nervous situation for the players.

"Most of them are not used to playing under such pressure but at the end we saved the result and you can imagine that everybody is unbelievably happy. It's the first time in history that this country will be represented in the World Cup, so I suppose it will be a one-week carnival in Trinidad and Tobago."

Bahrain coach Luka Peruzovic was dejected in defeat, believing his team missed out on qualifying by the narrowest of margins. "They pushed us but this is not the reason we lost or we are out," said the naturalised Belgian, who took over as Bahrain coach in August.

"We knew before the match it would be tough and only one detail can make a difference. But I knew it and I said before that in this kind of match little things make a difference."