Gael Clichy crossed from the left for Van Persie to head against the crossbar and Baggies goalkeeper Scott Carson spreadhimself well to repel Ramsey's close-range follow-up.
Moments later, Bradley had another chance to net but instead of palming Colin Devlin's pass over Cluxton a la Graham Geraghty, he gathered the ball and the Dublin goalkeeper was able to spreadhimself to save the shot.
Carelessness in the French defence gave the Irish a late chance to equalise, but Lloris spreadhimself to deny Whelan as the Republic's hopes of qualification were left hanging by a thread going into Wednesday's second leg in Paris.
Tagizade's cross was met strongly by Imamaliyev six yards from goal, only for Jones to spread-eagle himself and deflect the ball over the bar with his knee.
He then took it upon himself to see that they invested in band pictures immediately for a photo op in a magazine to spread their recognition over to readers.