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England Fight On - International Review

GROUP A

Two goals from prolific forward Ebi Smolarek gave Poland a 2-0 win and the three points they needed to seal qualification. Despite having finished third in the World Cups of 1974 and 1982 and qualifying also in 1978, 1986, 2002 and 2006 it is the first time Poland have ever made the European Championship finals. Beglium are rooted in fifth place which will not help their World Cup ranking, although there are signs of slow recovery due to an improving pool of young players like Maarten Martens, Kevin Mirallas, Marouane Fellaini and Vincent Kompany.

Portugal won but were booed off after a mediocre single goal victory in Leiria over Armenia. Hugo Almeida scored the goal but is set to miss the crucial match against Finland on Wednesday after picking up an injury. That match is kept alive after Finland came back from behind in Helsinki to beat Azerbaijan. Ilgar Gurbanov gave the Azeri’s the lead but Premier League strikers Mikael Forssell and Shefki Kuqi’s late goals gave Finland the win they needed. Roy Hodgson’s side must now win in Portugal to stand any chance of qualifying.

Everything is complicated by Serbia’s match in Belgrade against Kazakhstan being postponed until Saturday 24th November due to snowfall. Serbia still have a chance of qualifying but need Portugal to lose at home to Finland.

Qualified - Poland
Could Qualify - Portugal / Finland / Serbia

GROUP B

Heartbreak at Hampden Park for Scotland, who played exceptionally well against Italy before losing 2-1. Luca Toni gave Italy a dream start poking home Antonio di Natale’s low cross after just 70 seconds but Scotland grew in confidence throughout the first half. Referee Mejuto González attracted controversy, wrongly disallowing a goal from di Natale before failing to spot a Gianluca Zambrotta handball which should have led to a Scotland penalty and the Barcelona full-back’s dismissal. Barry Ferguson was offside when scrambling home Scotland’s equalizer after Gianluigi Buffon had parried a shot from Lee McCulloch and Christian Panucci - back in international favour after missing the 2006 World Cup campaign due to his bad relationship with then coach Marcello Lippi - headed the winner from a free-kick that should have been awarded to Scotland.

It mattered not but Lithuania gained a morale-boosting 2-0 win over Ukraine in Kaunas; Mantas Savenas opened the scoring before half-time and Tomas Danilevicius scored a delightful chipped goal midway through the second. All that remains to be determined is which qualified team - France or Italy - will finish top of the group.

Qualified - Italy, France

GROUP C

Things were going so well for Norwayat the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo. Defender Erik Hagen got his second goal in as many games early on, but it was Newcastle Utd’s Emre Belözoglu who hauled Turkey back into contention with an outstanding individual goal. Villarreal striker Nihat scored the winner just before the hour and Turkey held on to take pole position going into their final match. Norway must win in Malta and hope that Turkey drop points against Bosnia-Herzegovina at the Ali Sami Yen stadium on Wednesday.

Greece secured top spot with a routine 5-0 win over the Maltese at the Olympic Stadium with Theofanis Gekas netting a hat-trick. Angelos Basinas - a scorer in the opening match of Euro 2004 - and the hero of last month’s win in Turkey Ioannis Amanatidis grabbed the others. Hungary were hopeless in Moldova; Igor Bugaev, Nicolae Josan and Serghei Alexeev gave the hosts a 3-0 win in Chisinau.

Qualified - Greece
Could Qualify - Turkey / Norway

GROUP D

Ireland looked to have secured third place with a 2-1 win in Cardiff before a late Jason Koumas penalty cost them two points. Koumas headed Wales into the lead midway through the first half before Ireland - managed by caretaker Don Givens following the departure of Steve Staunton last month - hit back with goals either side of the break from Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle. Both were fine goals, Doyle’s coming from a clinical cross from Reading’s Stephen Hunt just seconds after he came on to replace Kevin Kilbane.

Germany and the Czech Republic are still neck and neck at the top. Clemens Fritz, Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Thomas Hitzlsperger gave Germany a 4-0 win over Cyprus in Hanover, while the Czechs beat rivals Slovakia 3-1 in Prague. Defender Zdenek Grygera gave them an early lead with Mark Kulic and Tomás Rosicky found late goals either side of an unfortunate own goal by Michal Kadlec. The Czechs will win the group with a victory in Cyprus, due to their better head-to-head record against Germany.

Qualified - Czech Republic, Germany

GROUP E

All to play for in Group E, after Steve McClaren’s wishes all came true on a crazy Saturday evening. A Russian win in Israel would have all but eliminated England but they slipped up in Tel Aviv. Elyaniv Barda’s cleverly taken goal after nine minutes put the hosts ahead but a Diniyar Bilyaletdinov equalizer on the hour caused England an anxious half hour. With Steve McClaren retiring to his hotel room’s en suite to hide, it was the cheers of his children that told him of St Omer Golan CBE’s stoppage time winner, scored just seconds after Dmitri Sychev had hit the post at the other end.

Just to make the day even better, England could actually win the group with a 2-0 win over Croatia after Slaven Bilic’s side lost an intense match against Macedonia on a potato field in Skopje. Croatia, who knew qualification was assured by half-time following Russia’s failure to beat Israel, collapsed in the second half, conceding goals to Goran Maznov and Ilco Naumoski which sent the home fans into delirium.

Qualified - Croatia
Could Qualify - England / Russia

GROUP F

Spain sealed qualification with a fine 3-0 win over Sweden at Real Madrid’s Bernabéu stadium, with full-backs Joan Capdevila and Sergio Ramos scoring either side of a well-worked team goal from Andrés Iniesta. Spain’s win means Sweden need a point from Latvia on Wednesday night.

That Northern Ireland retain a hope of qualifying, however improbable, going into their last game against Spain in Las Palmas on Wednesday night is a sign of their greatly improved standing under Lawrie Sanchez and Nigel Worthington. It helps that they have David Healy, whose wonderful winning goal against Denmark - a delicate, precise chip over Thomas Sørensen from a tight angle - set a new record of 13 goals in a European Championship qualifying campaign, breaking Davor Suker’s round dozen. A Warren Feeney header had cancelled out Nicklas Bendtner’s scrappy opener to give Norn Iron a 2-1 win, their sixth win of the campaign and a result that guarantees third place in the group. Denmark’s campaign has been another disappointing one, following their failure to make the 2006 World Cup from a group containing no outstanding teams.

Latvia beat Liechtenstein 4-1 in Riga to seal fifth place and avenge an embarrasing defeat in Vaduz in March. Liechtenstein’s seven point tally, including wins over Latvia and Iceland, could mean they are not bottom seeds in the World Cup draw.

Qualified - Spain
Could Qualify - Sweden / Northern Ireland

GROUP G

An early Velizar Dimitrov goal gave Bulgaria a 1-0 win over cross-border rivals Romania in Sofia but it mattered little with Holland needing just one point from a home match against Luxembourg. They made hard work of it, however, with Danny Koeverman’s first international goal, coming at the end of the first half, proving the only goal in the Kuip in Rotterdam. Holland may have qualified with a minimum of fuss but they have not found goals easy to come by against the minnows and are struggling to intergrate their talented young players into a squad containing veterans like Clarence Seedorf, Ruud van Nistelrooy and André Ooijer.

There was much more entertainment to be had in Tirana, even though there was never likely to be anything at stake in an Albania v Belarus match so late in the campaign. A brace each from Maksim Romaschenko and Vitali Kutuzov gave the visitors a 4-2 win, with Erjon Bodgani and Edmond Kapllani’s two quick goals had given the hosts a 2-1 lead.

Qualified - Romania, Holland

WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

Little can be said for certain so early in South America’s marathon World Cup qualifying league but it looks pretty likely that Ecuador’s run of World Cup participation is coming to an end. They produced a feeble performance in Asunción, going down 5-1 to Paraguay. Nelson Haedo Valdez, Cristian Riveros (2), Roque Santa Cruz and Néstor Ayala scored for the home side, with former Crysal Palace misfit Iván Kaviedes scoring Ecuador’s consolation. Their coach Luis Fernando Suárez resigned after the match, replaced by Sixto Vizuete.

Brazil dropped points on the road again, Kaká’s fine long-range goal cancelled out by a Juan Manuel Vargas shot that took a wicked deflection off Bayern Munich defender Lúcio. Marcelo Salas - not as old as you think at 32 - got his first international goals since June 2005 in Chile’s 2-2 draw with Uruguay in Montevideo, while Argentina got their expected easy win over Bolivia at the Monumental in Buenos Aires. A close-range header from Atlético Madrid’s Sergio Agüero was followed by a trademark free-kick and a measured finish from Juan Román Riquelme - who might become really quite good if he takes up club football again - to seal a 3-0 win and keep up Adolfo Basile’s side’s perfect start.

Rubén Darío Bustos, a workaday Grêmio defender, grabbed a late winner for Colombia at home to Venezuela, preventing a third straight goalless draw for the hosts. If Colombia are to qualify, it will surely be due to their mean defence.

Table - Argentina (9); Paraguay (7); Brazil (5); Colombia (5); Uruguay (4); Chile (4); Venezuela (3); Peru (2); Bolivia (1); Venezuela (0)

Meanwhile, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Madagascar have successfully negotiated the African preliminary round, while New Zealand already look nailed on to take Oceania’s place in a playoff against an Asian side.

In Asia, the eight lowest seeded remaining sides played over two legs. Turkmenistan, Syria, Singapore and Thailand progress to the first group stage, where the likes of South Korea, Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Australia wait, along with new Asian champions Iraq.

FRIENDLIES

France were unconvincing in a 2-2 draw with Morocco at the Stade de France, Sidney Govou and Samir Nasri on the scoresheet. England’s 1-0 win over Austria at the Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna came at a cost - Michael Owen will be out for a month after picking up a thigh strain. David Beckham marked his latest return to international football by claiming an assist as Peter Crouch headed his 13th England goal from his corner.

Sheffield Utd’s David Carney scored a fine goal to give an under-strength Australia a 1-0 win over an equally cobbled-together Nigeria at Fulham’s Craven Cottage ground, while Steve Cherundolo’s first half goal gave the USA a 1-0 win over South Africa at Ellis Park.

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Mike Martin is a freelance sports writer and playwright.

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