The Business End (II)

Well that was fun

England whooped Croatia 5-1 - meaning we finally sealed qualification, and have now scored a ridiculous 31 goals in 8 games, leaving the Croats sweating on Ukraine's performance against us in Kiev

Scotland failed and went out in predictable style - Norway are through to the second round on GD

However I have some good news for the Scots - it seems that Norway are probably boned anyway - they are the only team to have finished playing and lie second from bottom in 'round two', Sweden need two points from a line up that includes Albania at home, so neither they or Portugal will likely finish below them

Ireland need a point (off Montenegro), Greece need a point off Latvia, and should Latvia win then they'll finish second and be ahead anyway, and the only other team they can rely on is Bosnia to lose 6 goals and not get a point off Spain or Estonia - So yeah, not good prospects and Scotland would have faced this rather nasty scenario themselves due to their equally mediocre results - so it was all their own fault anyway really

In other news, Spain finally qualified with an eight point cushion after a 3-0 drubbing of Estonia

Unfortunately Portugal won in Hungary - while Denmark drew in Albania, meaning they are still a point away from the victory, but Sweden did defeat Malta to keep their two point lead and keep it in their own hands - even if they probably will need something in Denmark

Northern Ireland also lost, effectively meaning they won't be making the play-offs, while Germany and Russia are now guaranteed their top two spots (like we didn't know that already) - that whole group is hanging on, and has always hung on, one game - the game in Russia on 10th October - if Russia win they qualify, anything else and Germany take the top spot

Over in South America and Ecuador did the business over Bolivia, Argentina are just kicking off and really need a win in Paraguay