World Cup Qualifiers: Who Will Go Through

With England already qualified for the World Cup in South Africa next summer (for a change), attention is now turning to which other European teams will be joining Capello's men in South Africa, as the closing stages of qualifying approaches quickly.

From Europe only Holland and Spain have joined England so far, but six more will join them in the next week. And with FIFA's announcement that the play-offs will be a seeded draw, the remaining four qualifiers will, barring a shock result, be all but known.

Firstly lets deal with England’s Group Six, and which team will make the play offs.  Despite already qualifying England still play a very important role in the final standings, with a win or draw for Capello’s men in the Ukraine on Saturday likely to give Croatia second place.

But if the Ukraine manage to win, they will almost certainly make the play offs, unless, that is, they lose their final game to Andorra.

Perhaps the most high profile Group involves Germany and Russia, who, with only one point separating them, will face off in Moscow on Saturday. A win for Germany will see them qualify and leave Russia in the play offs.

A draw would leave Germany needing to beat Finland four days later to secure a place, but a win for Russia, followed by victory at Azerbaijan would see them qualify ahead of the Germans.

Serbia seem likely to prevent France from qualifying outright, needing to take three points from either Lithuania or a poor Romania side to secure a place in the Finals, leaving 1998 Champions France in the play offs. 

Another high profile team struggling to make it through automatically, and indeed even into the play offs are Portugal. The one saving grace for Portugal is that Sweden and Denmark face each other this weekend, and although Portugal should win their final two games that could still leave them in third place.

A win this weekend for Denmark would see them qualify outright and if Portugal win, leave them as favourites to take second place, but if Sweden win Portugal would need one of the Scandinavian sides to slip up. A draw for Sweden and Denmark this Saturday would mean second place will probably be decided on goal difference.

It only gets simpler from here.

In Group Two, Switzerland will take the top spot if they take four or more points from Luxembourg and Israel in their final two games, less if Greece and Latvia draw on Saturday.

Greece are probably favourites to make the play offs, but in theory the winner of their tie with Latvia should claim second place a draw leaving it down to goal difference.

The confusing Group Three will likely see Slovakia and Slovenia in the top two spots, with Slovakia likely to take the top spot.

Group Five is equally as simple, with Spain heading the group and already qualified, leaving Bosnia- Herzegovina likely to take the second place, although Turkey still have an outside chance of stealing the play off spot from them.

The final uncertainty involves the current Champions Italy and Ireland, who are looking to qualify for the fourth time in their history. Italy will almost certainly go through automatically, needing to beat either Ireland or Cyprus to go through.

Ireland are favourites to take second place, but must beat either Italy or Montenegro at home to secure second place.

As always with football, anything can happen, and I’m sure there will be a few surprises this week, with some tricky games and interesting scenarios coming up, even with England already qualified, the nation will still be looking forward to a great week of football.