Marking your card #12

A quick whizz round to pick out the picks of this weekend's viewing and it's an international football tournament frenzy!

Yes, the Oceania Nations Cup final is on Sunday! Now, since Australia decided to bunk up with the Asian Federation, this is basically New Zealand's tournament. They're the only side in there with any significant number of professionals. Qualification for the last four - the tournament run along the lines of the pre-1980 European Championships - is based on World Cup qualifying results and New Zealand duly topped their group ahead of the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Tahiti won Group A from New Caledonia with Vanuatu and whipping boys Samoa trailing in behind. The finals are taking place in the Solomon Islands and the semis were in the wee hours of this morning. Tahiti beat the hosts 1-0, but New Zealand crashed spectacularly against the tiny French dependency of New Caledonia. The final then sees the current and former French colonies face off, Tahiti probably favourites, with New Zealand and the Solomons contesting third place. Both games are on Sunday in a double-header at Honiara.

World Cup qualification for Brazil is in full swing with matches all over the world. In Africa, it's the second round of fixtures in the second group stage. The picks here are Morocco v Cote d'Ivoire, Zambia v Ghana and South Africa v Botswana on Saturday Mali v Algeria on Sunday. Venezuela v Chile is the pick of the South Amercian qualifiers along with Uruguay v Peru, but most eyes will be on a friendly between Argentina and Brazil in New Jersey. Th third round of CONCACAF qualifying gets underway as well, the USA at home to Antigua and Barbuda in what, population-wise, is a total mismatch. Of the region's bigger players, Canada look to have the easier group and they start away to Cuba.

League action does continue and there are three games to go in the Argentine Clausura. Boca have opened up a three-point lead at the top and face rock bottom Banfield, without a win in five, this weekend. Tigre and Arsenal are the nearest challengers with the latter's game against Argentinos Juniors the pick of the round. In Brazil, champions Corinthians got their first point of the season in this morning's game against Figueirense, but it's Vasco da Gama leading the way with three from three so far. They're away to Bahia this week, but most eyes will be on Palmeiras against Atlético Mineiro where a certain Ronaldinho Gaucho will make his first appearance for Atlético-MR following his sensational sacking by Flamengo. His former employers are at home to Coritiba.

Sampdoria take a 3-2 lead into the second leg of the Serie B promotion play-off final with Varese. It's all all-square in the Segunda Division play-off semis in Spain where Hércules and Alcorcón are locked at 1-1 and Real Valladolid and Córdoba are goalless ahead of Sunday's return legs. Nacional take on Defensor Sporting, who finished top, in the Uruguayan Clausura final.

Finally, there's a tiny wee competition in Poland and the Ukraine you may have heard about that starts today. Pick of the weekend's fixtures are Spain v Italy on Sunday and Saturday's Group B fixtures. It is, statistically speaking, the most morbid group of death in international football history with Portugal ranked 10th in the world, Denmark 9th, Germany 3rd and the Netherlands 4th. Saturday sees Germany take on Portugal and the Dutch play Denmark.

That lot should keep you going.

What the f

France 1-1 Ireland
France win 2-1 on aggregate

Slovenia 1-0 Russia
2-2 on aggregate. Slovenia win on away goals

Bosnia 0-1 Portugal
Portugal win 2-0 on aggregate

Ukraine 0-1 Greece
Greece win 1-0 on aggregate

You can only really start a World Cup round-up at Stade de France. Ireland came up with a battling performance against France and forced extra time after Robbie Keane converted Damien Duff's pinpoint cross. That was the only time the Irish beat the inspired Hugo Lloris in the French goal. Ireland had marginally the better of the extra half hour as well, but then came the controversy. After the referee had denied France a penalty, probably correctly, when Shay Given came off his line sharply at the feet of Nicolas Anelka, he summarily failed to see Thierry Henry handle the ball twice before squaring it to William Gallas who turned in an equaliser on the night and the winner overall.

Henry didn't deny that he'd handled it, instead claiming it to be the duty of the referee to spot it. He has a modicum of a point, but one which was greatly undermined as he wheeled away on celebration as if he'd just been granted the kingdoms of France, Spain and Portugal as reward for his cunning and then the faux-sportsmanship after the game as he commiserated with Richard Dunne. Frankly, if Dunne had punched him the throat and told him to fuck off, he'd have been more than justified.

Giovanni Trappatoni has seen pretty much everything in football and was characteristically magnanimous in an FAI press conference the following day. While the FAI barked up very much the wrong tree in pleading for a replay, Trappatoni expressed his disappointment in his now trademark half English-half Italian and seemingly moved on quickly. Dara O'Briain was on the radio and came up with a great idea. Throughout the World Cup finals, they should be referred to as France*. We'll certainly be doing that here.

Elsewhere, seeds Portugal and Greece prevailed. Portugal saw off depleted Bosnia and Miroslav Blazevic will surely now slide gracefully into retirement. What a career he's had and isn't it amazing how black his hair has remained? Raul Meireles struck ten minutes after half-time and Bosnia's fate was sealed when Sejad Salihovic was sent off. They've done well, Bosnia, but this was a bridge too far. Greece won through in a predictably dull game, Dimitrios Salpigidis with the only goal of the 120 minutes. So far so good for FIFA's seeding plan.

But when all else was failing, step forward Slovenia. They gave Russia no breathing space at all and Zlatko Dedic struck a minute before half-time to hand them the lead on the night and, on away goals, in the tie. Russia never got going and Slovenia really got stuck in, making life hard. Andrei Arshavin never got in the game and the rattled Russian finished with nine men as, first, Alexander Kerzhakov and then Yuri Zhirkov were sent off as it threatened to boil over. Slovenia are therefore the only non-seeds to progress and represent a big up yours to FIFA and, for that reason, they are the official Euroballs side of the 2010 World Cup.

World Cup scramble

The second legs of the World Cup qualifying play-offs take place tonight with the final four European places in next summer's finals at stake. All four games are finely poised with the non-seeds all poised to upset FIFA's shameless moving of the goalposts. Let's have a look at the state of play.

France (1) v Ireland (0)

Ireland did well in Dublin on Saturday, but failed to take their chances. By contrast, Nicolas Anelka did take one of France's few and the normally prolific André-Pierre Gignac could have all but ended the tie, but missed. This return fixture should be a feisty affair after a bit of a set-to parked by Lassana Diarra's contretemps with Keith Andrews at the final whistle at Croke Park. But will feist overcome flair? There's a tricky balancing act between the two and if Ireland concentrate too much on trying to unsettle the French, they'll expose themselves at the back. However, this French side isn't one of the great French sides and, as their travails are one of the main reasons we have this seeding system, let's all hope they cop a beating in St Denis.

Bosnia (0) v Portugal (1)

Miroslav Blazevic has done a terrific job with Bosnia, but the former Croatian boss, now 74, risks having all his work undermined by injury and suspension. The injury is the biggy - Zvejzdan Misimovic makes this side tick and will be sorely missed as part of a dynamic front four. The onus instead passes to Sejad Salihovic to provide the balls for Edin Dzeko and Vedad Ibisevic. Emir Spahic, Elver Rahimic and Samir Muratovic are all suspended having picked up yellow cards in the first leg. Simao reckons Portugal aren't going to sit on the 1-0 lead, but under Carlos Queiroz they've been inclined to sit back on leads during games a few times too often. It looks like Cristiano Ronaldo will miss this one as well, which is grist to Blazevic's mill. The old master to work one more miracle before he finally retires? Don't bet against it.

Slovenia (1) v Russia (2)

Nejc Pecnik's late goal in Moscow enlivened this tie as, until that point, it looked like Russia were walking away with it. Diniar Bilyaletdinov got both for the Russians and they were cruising home. Yes, they've still got the advantage in the tie, but momentum is a big thing and Slovenia are notably buoyed by the outcome. They boast a mean defence and a full-strength side for this game in Maribor. Guus Hiddink looks set for a midfield reshuffle with Alan Dzagoev still struggling after missing the first leg and Igor Semshov and Vladimir Bystrov both in poor form. Russia will start favourites to progress, but that away goal looks huge.

Ukraine (0) v Greece (0)

This could rank as one of the dullest games in the history of World Cup qualifying. Greece under Otto Rehhagel play as they always have done: tight at the back, hit on the counter. That can be quite entertaining, but not against a side like Ukraine with the paucity of attacking options that they bring to the table. Alexiy Mikhailichenko played Andriy Shevchenko on his own up top in the first leg, but Artem Milevskiy and Oleg Gusev will have to get up in support more if Ukraine are to break down the tough Greek rearguard. Socrates Papastathopoulos was detailed to look after Shevchenko in Athens, but while defence is fairly well looked after, it's the Greek attack that looks weak. And Ukraine haven't conceded at home since June. Penalties.

Outside of Europe, there's a couple of tasty looking clashes as well. Egypt beat Algeria in a bad-tempered grudge match by two goals to nil at the weekend which left the rivals with identical playing records through the group stage. This then requires them to play off in a one-off game and it's in Sudan. In the Americas, Costa Rica lost in San Jose to Uruguay, but go to Montevideo in good spirits. More on that on our sister site, CONMEBalls.

Seeds of annoyance

In a classic case of moving the goalposts that comes a close second to the exploits of IFK Gothenburg's Kim Christensen, UEFA have gone ahead with their last-minute plan to seed the World Cup qualifying play-offs. Had this been the plan all along, then nobody would have had a problem, but this idea was only raised a month ago at a time when some of the big names in world football were having a tough time making it through to South Africa.

As it turned out, most of the big, sponsor-friendly names made it through, but France and Portugal have to go through these play-offs and the prospect of them facing each other may have denuded the finals of some top talent. They're among the seeds, unsurprisingly, along with Russia and Greece and they'll face Ukraine, Ireland, Bosnia and Slovenia.

Never will the neutral root more for the underdog.

No major casualties: World Cup round-up

With the sword of Damocles hanging over the hopes of a few of our teams, this was a big week in the European section of the World Cup qualifying competition. So who's going where? Let's do this group-by-group.

Group 1

Portugal 3-0 Hungary
Portugal 4-0 Malta

Canny work from the Portuguese in arranging their final two fixtures were both at home and they won both comfortably. On Saturday, Simão was the hero with two goals as the fast fading Hungary were put away with something to spare. Just after the quarter hour, Cristiano Ronaldo put the ball into the box and the keeper parried it straight to the feet of the little winger who stuck it past the prone Gabor Babos. Ronaldo went off injured ten minutes later which didn't help Portugal and it wasn't until late in the second half that two quickfire goals finished off the Magyars. Bruno Alves put in a deep cross for Liédson - unmarked on the back post - to head home and moments later Simão volleyed in at the back post as Hungary were caught in defence. While that was going on, Denmark were beating Sweden and Portugal were suddenly up to second.
Malta hadn't won in the competition - indeed had only one point to their name - so surely Portugal were going to clinch that play-off spot. Well, yes they were and duly stuck four past the hapless Maltese. Nani got it rolling with a superb shot on the turn from 18 yards and Simão doubled the advantage from similar range in the stroke of half-time, gifted possession on the edge of the box by some clumsy defending. Miguel Veloso added a third eight minutes after the restart, tapping in after Liédson's air shot 6 yards out fell kindly to him, and Edinho wrapped up the game and second place in the group, springing what passed for an offside trap to race onto a clever through ball.
They now await the draw for the play-offs.

Group 3

Czech Republic 2-0 Poland
Poland 0-1 Slovakia

A pisspoor end to a pisspoor qualification effort from Poland. Just 1900 turned up to witness the defeat to Slovakia and, while the appalling weather was doubtless a contributory factor, a boycott from the hardcore support was to blame. The momentum for a boycott built up after the dismal display in Prague. Tomas Necid broke the deadlock five minutes after the break, given the freedom of the field by the statuesque defence before rolling the ball in off the near post. Keeper Wojciech Kowalewski was again beaten at his near post twenty minutes later, a nice header from Jaroslav Plasil, although one that should have been stopped.
On Wednesday in the snow, the game became a victory party for Slovakia who ended top of the group and the ever-generous Poles handed them the only goal of the game, Seweryn Gancarczyk shinning a routine clearance past Jerzy Dudek.

Group 4

Russia 0-1 Germany
Germany 1-1 Finland

The win in Russia ensured Germany would finish top of the group and qualify for yet another finals and the draw with Finland in Munich saw them go unbeaten through the campaign. Russia seemed to get a bit of stagefright on Saturday although they did start well and tested Rene Adler. Half an hour in, rising star Mesut Ozil squared for Miroslav Klose and he couldn't miss from five yards (though he gave it a good try). 22 minutes from time, Kevin-Prince Boateng went lunging in once too often on a slippery surface and picked up a second yellow card, but Germany hung on to clinch top spot.
That made Wednesday's home game against Finland a formality, which seemed a good thing when Jonatan Johansson bundled in a tenth minute opener. The unbeaten record was preserved when, in the last minute, Lukas Podolski stabbed home from a few feet after the mother of all goalmouth scrambles.

Group 5

Armenia 1-2 Spain
Bosnia 2-5 Spain

Ten out of ten for the reigning European champions after two straightforward wins in Eastern Europe. Cesc Fabregas put Spain in front in Yerevan just after the half hour. A lovely lofted pass - think a 9-iron approach to the green - from Xavi fell right into the Arsenal man's path and he flicked it over the keeper with the outside of the right boot. Nice. The Armenians were level quarter of an hour after the break, Robert Arzumanyan heading in a deep free-kick at the back post, but Juan Mata quickly restored the lead from the penalty spot.
Two late, late goals from Bosnia took the edge off the scoreline a little, but Spain belted them out of it, running into a 5-0 lead before Wolfsburg pair Edin Dzeko - work the angles and fire it in off a defender and the back post - and Zvjezdan Misimovic - daisy-cutting 20-yard volley - reduced the deficit. The damage had already been done. Two in a minute around the quarter hour broke the backs of the Bosnians, Gérard Piqué heading in a free-kick for the opener with David Silva slotting one through the keeper's legs shortly after. Early in the second half, Alvaro Negredo got two in five minutes, the first a shot on the turn from 12 yards, the second a tap-in at the back post. Juan Mata made it five, latching on to a superb diagonal through ball to slide it home.

Group 7

France 5-0 Faroe Islands
France 3-1 Austria

France rounded off one of their worst qualifying campaigns of the last twenty years with two wins that paper over a lot of cracks and ensure a play-off place. The defeat of the Faroes was expected with André-Pierre Gignac's double opening the scoring. His first was a shot on the turn from just about right on the penalty spot, the second slightly more spectacular. Taking the ball down on his chest just inside the Faroes half, he surged past four defenders and fired low across goal and inside the far post. And that was game over effectively, though further goals followed after the break. William Gallas headed in a deep, deflected cross, Karim Benzema waltzed through some lacklustre defending for the fourth and Nicolas Anelka tapped in from about a foot as the defence failed to clear.
That win ensured second place meaning their defeat of Austria was just for fun. Austria failed to deal with a corner allowing Benzema to fling himself full length to open the scoring with a diving header and Thierry Henry fired in a penalty before Austria got one back through Marc Janko who profited from a rare Hugo Lloris mistake. But there wasn't to be an upset as Gignac scored another toaster, checking inside off the left wing and cracking a shot from the corner of the box into the top corner of the net.
They're not out of the woods yet and have that play-off next month to negotiate.

Group 8

Ireland 2-2 Italy
Italy 3-2 Cyprus

The Azzurri has Alberto Gilardino to thank for seeing them to an unbeaten campaign and a first-placed finish. One late goal in Ireland rescued a point and three more spared a fair number of blushes against Cyrpus. Ireland led twice at Croke Park, Glenn Whelan giving them a great start firing in from a nicely worked free-kick routine and Sean St Ledger restoring the lead four minutes from time after Mauro Camoranesi headed in a first half equaliser. In stoppage time, Vincenzo Iaquinta squared it across the box for Gilardino to wrong-foot Shay Given and ensure Italy finished top with Ireland's point enough for second.
Cyprus went two up in Italy in the final game and held that lead until twelve minutes from the end before more Gilardino blush-saving. Giannis Okkas had given the Italians some warning, firing inches over before he slotted one past Federico Marchetti just eleven minutes in. Chrysis Michael doubled the lead just after the break, volleying a slack back header and so it looked like it would stay until Gilardino finally got into the game. Twelve minutes from the end, he flicked Camoranesi's cross across goal and inside the far post and, two minutes later, equalised when poor defending allowed him to ghost in at the near post and shin it in. Into stoppages and he popped up in the right place again to bundle the ball over the line as the Cypriot defence fell about like Keystone Kops.

The Dutch were through already, of course, and Italy, Spain and Germany join them. Portugal and France face play-offs next month while Poland are out.

Who needs what?

International week this week and only a handful of our teams are looking good for a spell in South Africa next summer. The Dutch, who have completed their campaign, and the Spanish are already there and Italy can start booking hotels with confidence. Germany, France and Portugal's hopes are in the balance while Poland are going nowhere.

Saturday:
Russia v Germany
Armenia v Spain
Czech Republic v Poland
France v Faroe Islands
Republic of Ireland v Italy
Portugal v Hungary

Wednesday:
Germany v Finland
Bosnia v Spain
France v Austria
Italy v Cyprus
Poland v Slovakia
Portugal v Malta

France are in the merde. An automatic place looks beyond them - they're four points adrift of Serbia - and they're without several key players for this week's games. Yoann Gourcuff, Samir Nasri and Franck Ribéry are all injured which robs them of pretty much all creativity. Raymond Domenech was, rightly, criticised for playing two holding midfielders in games Les Bleus simply had to win. In the build-up to these latest matches, he's been more often quoted about his ambitions in the world of poker than he has about football. He comes across as a man who knows he'll have plenty of spare time on his hands in a few weeks time. France ought to beat Austria and the Faroes this week, but a play-off place is all that's at stake. Win or lose that, they still need a change of direction at the top. Domenech must go and even two eye-catching performances this week will not change that, regardless of the fact that his teams simply don't do eye-catching. The one hope is that Serbia are under threat of points deductions if there's any more bother at their games. It would sum up a terrible campaign if France were to go through by default.

Spain round off a successful campaign with a tour round Eastern Europe. They could be without Fernando Torres as well as David Villa - Torres limped out of training - but still have way too much firepower to end the campaign with anything other than a big, fat duck egg in the L column on the table.

Poland are out, as is Leo Beenhakker already, and finish with two really tough fixtures. The Czechs haven't impressed, but are still a far better side than Poland while Slovakia are hot favourites to win the group and the game against Poland on Wednesday could easily be their coronation. A miserable end to a miserable campaign fought with all the style and panache of Rudy Giuliani's US presidential attempt. That is to say, none at all.

Saturday's game in Moscow will all but determine the outcome of Group 4 where Russia are a point behind the visitors, Germany. The loser will go to the play-offs with both sides having relatively straightforward fixtures on Wednesday, moreso Russia. On the artificial surface in the Luzhniki, a stumbling German side - two practice games against Mainz reserves failed to muster a goal - look vulnerable. Mario Gomez, Lukas Podolski and Miro Klose are - how to put this gently - not troubling the scorers a great deal this season. Just what is it about Bayern that turns competent forwards into shambling relics of their former selves? The game is live in the UK on ESPN and it promises plenty of tension if nothing else.

Portugal are hoping for a minor miracle. Malta are easy-beats - they've not scored in the entire campaign as yet - but Hungary are anything but, despite fading from the dizzy heights after the last round of matches. Even with six points, Denmark only need a point to seal qualification. If Denmark get that point against Sweden, then the Swedes only have to beat Albania at home to secure second place and that play-off spot. So Portugal are relying on Denmark to do them a big, big favour. As if the Denmark v Sweden game needed anything else placing on it.

Marcello Lippi is under pressure, so he's done what he did in club football for so long - pick a Juventus side. Ignoring pressure to pick the in-form Antonio Cassano, he's stuck with what he knows and it'll be Alberto Gilardino and Vincenzo Iaquinta up top, though both have patchy recent records in the Azzurri shirt. Seven Juve players are in line for a start at Croke Park where a draw will see Italy to qualification. They then finish at home to Cyprus, but the Italian media are looking for a sign that they're still a force. They will qualify top of the group, but how they do it is almost as important. They're without Fabio Cannavaro for the Ireland game due to suspension, but will he be around for the finals? More on that later.

Elsewhere on Saturday, there's that Denmark v Sweden crunch clash with more than just local bragging rights at stake and it's Slovakia v Slovenia in a mighty tussle in Group 3.

Henry earns Domenech stay of execution: international reviews

Saturday:
Denmark 1-1 Portugal
France 1-1 Romania
Georgia 0-2 Italy
Poland 1-1 Northern Ireland
Spain 5-0 Belgium

Wednesday:
Germany 4-0 Azerbaijan
Hungary 0-1 Portugal
Italy 2-0 Bulgaria
Scotland 0-1 Netherlands
Serbia 1-1 France
Slovenia 3-0 Poland
Spain 3-0 Estonia

The writing appeared to be on the wall for Les Bleus and for Raymond Domenech after just nine minutes of Wednesday's game in Belgrade when Hugo Lloris was sent off and Nejad Milijas converted the resultant penalty. As he had on the previous Saturday, up stepped Thierry Henry to rescue the situation, swooping on a rebound off the keeper after Nicolas Anelka's speculator was fumbled. Saturday saw Henry put France ahead against Romania, but the hapless Julien Escudé put through his own net in comical style to level it. Two draws aren't good enough on their own, but results elsewhere mean France are in second place in the group, four behind Serbia and four clear of Austria who are third. The play-offs beckon, but that won't be enough to save Domenech. He has totally failed to get a very good crop of players playing well together and internal divisions are reportedly widespread.

The Dutch have finished their campaign and signed off with a win in Glasgow. They had stand-in keeper Michel Vorm, of in-form Utrecht, to thank in a large part as he pulled off a string of top notch saves to keep the Scots at bay. Having done that, it was Eljero Elia, off the bench in place of Arjen Robben, to pop up and take the ball round David Marshall and tuck it away to end the Oranje qualifying campaign with a 100% record.

Poland are out. In need of two wins to stand any real chance of qualification, they completely ballsed it up. A battling draw at Windsor Park wasn't necessarily too bad, but the capitulation in Slovenia on Wednesday consigned them to fifth place in the group and signalled the end of Leo Beenhakker's tenure.

Portugal live to fight another day, although it's still tough for them to get through. The draw with Denmark was useful, but it meant that they had to beat Hungary on Wednesday. Pepé's early header put them ahead and they hung on for a not-entirely-convincing win. Sweden are still in the box seat for the play-off place, but this one is going to the wire.

Estonia were brushed aside by Spain as they waltzed into the finals. Cesc Fabregas got things moving on Wednesday with a tidy goal involving him and David Silva. Santi Cazorla is back and doing great and added a second before Juan Mata wrapped it up. They'll be among the top two or three favourites next year.

Italy aren't there yet, but they're within touching distance after two comfortable wins. Two Kakha Kaladze own goals gifted them victory in Tblisi on Saturday before Fabio Grosso and Vincenzo Iaquinta gave them another 2-0 win on Wednesday. They're four clear of Ireland with two games to play and the next fixture is against Trappatoni's Irish in Dublin next month. A point will do them.

Two wins over the week for Russia coupled with Germany's routine win over Azerbaijan sets up a showdown between the two nations next month on Russian soil. Two Miroslav Klose goals were sandwiched by a Michael Ballack penalty and Lukas Podolski's first goal of the season saw off the Azeris to leave them Germans a point ahead of Russia with two to go. The winner of the clash on the tenth of October will probably top the group with a draw favouring Germany.

An international break

With the leagues across Europe taking a breather for international football, let's have a look-see about who needs to do what from the leagues we follow.

The Netherlands don't need to do anything. They were the first European qualifiers for South Africa after cutting a swathe through what, for them at least, is a pretty easy group. Bert van Marwijk's side (he's Mark van Bommel's father in-law - FACT!) have won seven from seven, scored 16 goals with just two coming back the other way and sit fourteen points clear of Macedonia - a huge margin. Put it another way: they are two points per match better than any other side in the group. A potential stumbling block for van Marwijk in the lead-up to the finals was the fate of the Dutch contingent at Real Madrid, all of whom were on the outer as soon as Florentino Perez walked back into the boardroom and started doing all that galactico bollocks again. Arjen Robben (Bayern) and Wesley Sneijder (Inter) have moved on, but Rafael van der Vaart has chosen to remain. With little chance of regular football, it'll be hard for van Marwijk to pick him and a move in January may be the only chance van der Vaart has to force himself into the reckoning for South Africa.
On Saturday, the Dutch have a friendly against Japan before Wednesday's trip to Glasgow for what looks a routine job to go eight from eight against Scotland.

France haven't had a great campaign, but lie second in group 7, five points behind Serbia with a game in hand. Goals have been at a premium with none of Les Bleus four wins being by more than one goal. Indeed, Yoann Gourcuff's virtuoso performances have been the only thing keeping the French in it and, perhaps more pertinently, keeping Raymond Domenech in a job. Saturday sees them take on Romania who have struggled to make an impact in the tournament, before an absolutely crunch game in Belgrade. Lose that one and they can kiss goodbye to top spot and automatic qualification. Win it and it's all back on again. A fit Franck Ribéry is vital to their hopes, but with some bizarre tactical formations from Domenech, it could quite easily unravel.

Germany have dropped just two points from their first seven games, but are only four points clear of Russia in second. Crucially, the Russians have a game in hand which they'll play while the Germans have a friendly against South Africa on Saturday. Wednesday sees Azerbaijan go to Germany and it's impossible to think there's any hope of an upset there. While other countries may see their national side succumb to the odd shock result, Germany doesn't tend to. Instead, they improve their goal difference in ruthless fashion as recent demolition jobs bare testament to, such as the 12-0 drubbing of San Marino a couple of years ago. Next month's game in Russia will be the big one in this group.

Group 5 hasn't troubled Spain any, six wins from six seeing them six points clear at the top. Belgium are Saturday's opponents and while they're an up and coming side are Belgium, they lack a little experience at the moment. They're certainly a side to keep an eye on in the not too distant future, but Spain should have few issues in this one. It's another home game on Wednesday too, against Estonia, and you can't see past del Bosque's charges making it eight from eight.

Italy are just a point clear of the Republic of Ireland in group 8, but do have a game in hand. They go away to winless Georgia on Saturday before third placed Bulgaria - not the force they were back 1994 - come to Italy on Wednesday. It's Italy's group to lose and it's almost impossible to imagine they'd do that. Two wins this week and it begins to look very straightforward.

Portugal have a struggle on to make second and the play-offs, lying in third place seven points off leaders Denmark and four behind a resurgent Hungary in second. The fixtures this week therefore become make-or-break as it's off to Copenhagen on Saturday before Hungary visit the Iberian peninsula on Wednesday. Six points from these two games is a must or they can forget about South Africa. Even that may not be enough, but it would certainly get them going in the right direction.

Group 3 is the tightest of the European groups with the top five clubs covered by seven points. Poland are fourth but have played a game fewer than the two sides immediately above them and those same sides are Poland's opponents over the next few days. Northern Ireland visit Poland on Saturday before a trip to Slovenia on Wednesday. Win those and they'll go into second and look good for the play-offs, but this is Poland and something is going to go horribly wrong at some point. It's just what happens.

It's all hotting up in South America as well, and you can read more about that on CONMEBalls.