England had already qualified before their defeat to the Ukraine – several other teams joined them on Saturday, including Italy after their last gasp equaliser against Ireland. Read on for a full round up of what is left to be decided (when time is short and articles are factual we tend to reproduce the best of the rest – that’s the case here, lawyers, we are reprinting an article from the ever-excellent Football365…)
A few teams joined England in qualifying for the World Cup over the weekend, the lucky devils.
Heartbreakingly for Ireland, champions Italy secured their place with Alberto Gilardino’s late equaliser, denying us all an entertaining Wednesday night waiting to see if they choked against Cyprus.
Germany also sealed their place, and boy did they deserve it after surviving a Russian battering of the Teutons not seen since 1941 to win 1-0 in Moscow. Denmark are also through after beating Sweden, while Serbia also booked their place with a rather emphatic 5-0 rogering of Romania.
That leaves not an awful lot up for grabs on Wednesday. Both automatic and runner-up spots are sorted in five of the nine groups, and two of the play-off places are more or less foregone conclusions. Ukraine only have to beat Andorra to finish second to England, while Portugal will stumble through with a victory over Malta.
Switzerland will have to make quite an effort not to qualify automatically from the turgid Group Two, as a draw will be enough at home to Israel. If they slip up, Greece can sneak through if/when they beat Luxembourg, and while Israel and Latvia can technically still qualify, they are relying on the Luxemburgers.
The most interesting European section is Group Three. Slovakia are two points ahead of Slovenia at the top, but have a tricky game in Poland, knowing that the Slovenians will beat San Marino. Their goal difference is identical, so a win is required if the Slovaks are to go through automatically.
Whoever wins the Czech Republic/Northern Ireland game can still mathematically claim a play-off spot, but that relies on San Marino winning, and given that they have only scored once and have a magnificently s**t goal difference of -43, that seems unlikely to say the least.
As things stand, the second-placed teams are ranked thusly (number of points after the games against the bottom team in their respective groups in brackets): Russia (15), Ukraine (15), Slovenia (14), Bosnia and Herzegovina (13), Greece (13), Portugal (13), France (12), Ireland (11) and Norway (10).
As Norway have played all their games, if all the second-placed teams stay as they are (and indeed all the bottom teams do) then the top eight in that list will go through to the play-offs. Of course, there are a whole bunch of permutations that will change that, but frankly, our heads are hurting in F365 Towers, so if you want to work it out yourselves, go right ahead. Or, you could enjoy your day and just wait until Wednesday night.
Elsewhere, Chile went through from the South American group with their win in Columbia, but there’s all sorts of jiggery-pokery to be sorted in the final round of games. After Martin Palermo’s 93rd-minute winner on Saturday (prompting these wet n’ wild scenes), Argentina currently occupy the fourth automatic spot, but only by a point, meaning they must avoid defeat in Uruguay to stop Diego Forlan’s boys overtaking.
Sixth-placed Ecuador aren’t out of it either. If they beat the already-qualified and depleted Chile, they will take the play-off spot, and could consign Argentina to a summer kicking their heels if things go against Diego’s troops in Uruguay. However, if the Argies get a point then they will most likely go through automatically, given their superior goal difference. Venezuela could technically take fifth spot, but that’s really very unlikely. Complicated, eh?
In CONCACAF, both Mexico and USA will be in South Africa, having secured their spots with wins over El Salvador and Honduras respectively. Costa Rica need a win in Washington to be sure of the final spot, with Honduras breathing down their necks.
In Africa, Ivory Coast are through after their draw with Malawi, but Togo’s loss to Cameroon means they won’t qualify. The rest have to wait until the final round of games in November to discover their fate.
Finally, the first leg (second leg to be played in November) of the play-off between New Zealand and Bahrain ended in a 0-0 draw. Sounds like a corker.
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