Nine spots left

And so we approach the end of World Cup qualifying, within the next five or six days we shall have all our teams settled and ready for the big draw on 4th December, in which we will all moan about getting Sweden...again

All eyes (in Europe at least) are on Portugal, facing plucky Bosnia without their precious Ronaldo, among others - there probably wasn't a worse team for them to face, so perhaps a little justice has been served after FIFA's decision to seed the teams at the eleventh hour

There is much hope being placed on Bosnia's shoulders - who come into the play-offs having scored eight more goals than Portugal and matching them for points, despite having had to compete with Spain and Turkey while Portugal faced Denmark and Sweden, qualifying by only one point

Nevertheless, Portugal will go into this game as 1/2 favourites (although I might point out that they were also favourites for the group - that was a nice big profit) - Bosnia are at 7/1 and the draw is 10/3 - quite tasty if you ask me, but I don't wish to tempt fate

The other big game in Europe is Ireland v France - lots of home nation support for both the Irish to qualify for their fourth world cup appearance and for the dismal French to miss out on a major tournament for once - France are slight favourites at 6/4, but Trapattoni's Ireland, who are undefeated in qualifying, have shown that they can be a match for the likes of Italy, so they can certainly do the same for an undeserving French side - this may come down to away goals

Might it be worth a sneaky 5/2 on Ireland to qualify, or 13/5 on Bosnia?

In somewhat less interesting news, Russia play Slovenia and Greece play Ukraine, looks like a lot of the Eastern European landmass will be getting representation next year

Further afield Costa Rica, now on their third consecutive finals appearance, battle it out against whiney bitches Uruguay, the bookies can't tell them apart - but I would have to say that at home Costa Rica are pretty good

The other intercontinental play-off will be over first - being in New Zealand and the first leg already having been tied at 0-0 (in the desert as Ryan Nelson put it) - I've already mentioned this, but the sheer concept of New Zealand going to the world cup is mind-boggling - should they beat Bahrain they will have their tickets

Honestly, Ireland have to navigate Italy and Bulgaria, and then defeat France, New Zealand basically get a free ride to a play-off in which they face Bahrain for a place in the finals...

The remaining three spots are in Africa, to be played tomorrow afternoon

In group A, Cameroon head to bottom-placed Morrocco with a one-point lead over Gabon, who will be in Togo

In group B, Tunisia hold a two-point lead over Nigeria, both will be away, facing Mozambique and Kenya respectively

In group C, it all comes down to Egypt v Algeria - Algeria hold a three point lead, so Egypt need to win by three goals or more to qualify (two goals would mean a play-off)

And that's it, it'll all be over for seven months

Or until we all start theorising about the seedings...

Update: New Zealand are in the world cup for the first time since 1982 after a 1-0 victory over Bahrain - they will possibly be the lowest ranked team to enter, I wouldn't normally be interested, but then it's not normally a country I've been to