With just one qualifying berth to be filled for next year's World Cup finals, the competition looks to be wide open. The traditional order of things seems to be in turmoil - Brazil have scraped through by the skin of their teeth, Germany were forced into the play-offs in order to qualify and even France could be a victim of their own success, as the World and European champions have not faced a proper competitive game since the Euro 2000 final.
Bookies have quoted France and Argentina as joint favourites for the trophy at 4-1, while Brazil and Italy are 7-1. England are rated 9-1 third favourites, while the Republic of Ireland are an outside bet at 50-1. Outside of their remarkable 5-1 win over Germany, England have failed to convince. Compare the English qualifying record with the Republic's. Ireland have emerged out of a group which featured Portugal and Holland. At the start of the qualifying campaign, who would have thought that Ireland would edge out the Dutch? Would many back Sven Goran Eriksson's flair players over Mick McCarthy's grafters in a head-to-head? The gap between the elite and more unknown quantities is narrower than ever before, and former minnows like Slovenia, Turkey and South Africa could scare more powerful nations.
Thirty-one teams are now certain of their places in Japan and South Korea. The remaining place will go the winners of a play-off between Australia and Uruguay. The Aussies, under the guidance of ex-England boss Terry Venables, narrowly missed out on appearing at France 1998 after losing out on away goals to Iran in a play-off. Uruguay have won the World Cup twice, in 1930 and 1950, but their last appearance in the finals was in 1990. The South Americans will face Australia on Tuesday, just five days after completing the 24-hour journey in which they cross 12 time zones.
The qualifiers so far:
ASIA (2 places plus co-hosts) - South Korea (co-hosts), Japan (co-hosts), China, Saudi Arabia.
AFRICA (5) - South Africa, Cameroon, Senegal, Tunisia & Nigeria
CENTRAL AMERICA (3) - Costa Rica, United States and Mexico
SOUTH AMERICA (4 or 5) - Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, Brazil (Uruguay to face Australia in play-off)
UEFA (15, includes holders) - France (holders), Poland, Sweden, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Denmark, Croatia, Italy, England, Slovenia, Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Republic of Ireland
Filed by Greg McKevitt
