Portugal’s men o’ war in play-offs
Despite the absence of Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, goals from Nani, Simao Sabrosa, Miguel Veloso and Edinho made it a comfortable evening for Carlos Queiroz’s side in Guimaraes. Portugal now go into next month’s double-header against another group runner-up – which could see them face Giovanni Trapattoni’s Republic of Ireland.
The Portuguese recovered well after a dismal first half of their bid to reach South Africa, and will surely now fancy their chances of reaching the finals, given they will be among the seeded teams in next Monday’s draw.
Sweden won 4-1 at home to Albania in a match which brings to an end the reign of coach Lars Lagerback who announced his intention to stand down should Sweden fail to qualify.
Denmark, with qualification already secured, laboured in a 1-0 defeat to Hungary at home, Akos Buzsaky getting the goal after 35 minutes.
Switzerland secured qualification by claiming the point they needed in Group Two with a draw against Israel in Basle last night. Ottmar Hitzfeld’s team failed to score for the first time in their campaign, against an Israel side who played with 10 men for the final half-hour as Avihai Yadin was sent off.
Greece, the group runners-up, will be in the draw for the play-offs and are potential opponents for Ireland after they beat Luxembourg 2-1 in Athens.
Vasilis Torosidis headed the Greeks in front on the half-hour mark and Theofanis Gekas, scorer of four goals in Saturday’s 5-2 win over Latvia, added a second three minutes later.
Avraam Papadopoulos scored an own goal but Greece sealed a result which sees Otto Rehhagel’s 2004 European champions clinch their play-off place.
In Group Seven, France avenged their defeat in Austria with a comfortable 3-1 victory to ease the pressure on under-fire coach Raymond Domenech.
Karim Benzema set Les Bleus on their way in the 17th minute and Thierry Henry doubled their tally from the spot 10 minutes later. Marc Janko pulled one back but substitute Andre-Pierre Gignac restored France’s two-goal advantage with a superb strike. France are another potential opponent for Ireland.
Also in Group Seven, Romania beat Brian Kerr’s Faroe Islands 3-1. Lithuania upset qualified Serbia 2-1.
Germany failed to celebrate their qualification in style after stumbling to a 1-1 draw with Finland in Hamburg.
Russia, who could face Ireland in the play-offs, were also held, 1-1 in Azerbaijan. Andrei Arshavin scored for Russia with Vagif Javadov equalising.
The other game in Group Four saw Wales win 2-0 in Liechtenstein goals from David Vaughan and Aaron Ramsey.
Slovenia had to settle for a place in the World Cup qualifying play-offs despite a 3-0 win away to San Marino in Group Three last night.
Slovakia’s 1-0 win in Poland meant they took top spot in the pool and consigned Slovenia to a two-legged tie to reach the finals in South Africa next year.
The Czech Republic and Northern Ireland’s faint hopes of making it into the World Cup play-offs were extinguished last night. The Czechs needed to beat Northern Ireland in Prague and hope Slovenia slipped up in San Marino. Nevertheless it was a creditable away draw.
Alberto Gilardino scored a hat-trick in the last 13 minutes to cap a remarkable turnaround for Italy and lift them to victory over Cyprus in Ireland’s Group Eight.
Italy were made to work after Yiannis Okkas opened the scoring in the 12th minute before Chrysostomos Michail extended Cyprus’ advantage early in the second half.
But Gilardino hose last-gasp equaliser against Ireland’s heroics saved Italy at Croke Park, saved Italy’s blushes in the final stages.
Bulgaria finished their campaign on a high with a 6-2 victory at home to Georgia. Manchester United’s Dimitar Berbatov grabbed a first-half hat-trick for the Bulgarians, though the result itself was immaterial as Ireland had already secured the play-off berth.
Croatia were the highest-profile casualties as their Group Six qualification bid ultimately ended in failure despite a 2-1 win in Kazakhstan. Slaven Bilic’s side had needed Ukraine to slip up in Andorra, but that unlikely scenario never materialised as Ukraine cantered into the play-offs with a 6-0 triumph.
It meant Croatia, ranked ninth in the world, failed to qualify for a World Cup finals for the first time since they gained independence in 1993 and marked them as the highest-ranked team to have missed out so far.
England, already qualified, cruised to a 3-0 win over Belarus with two goals from Peter Crouch and one from Shaun Wright-Phillips.
In Group Five, Spain qualified with a perfect record with 10 wins out of 10 after a crushing victory 5-2 over Bosnia-Herzegovina in Zenica.
Spain swept aside the second-best team in their pool thanks to early goals from Gerard Pique and David Silva and two in the second half from Alvaro Negredo on his first start. Juan Mata then added a fifth before Bosnia pulled two goals back in injury-time from Edin Dzeko and Zvjezdan Misimovic.
Turkey beat Armenia 2-0 while Estonia beat Belgium 2-0.
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