Eight teams go into the final round of European zone 2014
World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday with hopes of securing
the final four automatic spots in Brazil next year.
Holders Spain and Fabio Capello's Russia look all but
assured of securing their berths at the expense of France
and Portugal respectively, though, those two will get
another chance in the play-offs for the best eight runners-
up.
Spain need only a point at home to Georgia to qualify,
regardless of France's result at home to Finland, while
Russia, who have a three-point lead over the Portuguese,
also need just a point away against Azerbaijan to book
their ticket to Brazil.
French morale has hardly been boosted by a Sunday poll
that found that their predecessors' past bad behaviour,
largely at the 2010 World Cup finals where they mutinied
and refused to train, still lingers with 82% declaring they
had an unfavourable opinion of the national side and 76%
thought they were just plain rude.
Portugal, for their part, will be without captain and
playmaker Cristiano Ronaldo and influential central
defender Pepe for their final game at home to minnows
Luxembourg.
While victory should be a formality, the Russians are
unlikely to slip-up away at the Azeris.
For Bosnia-Herzegovina and perennial finals under-
achievers England the scenario is more complicated with
both being chased by Greece and Ukraine respectively.
England host Poland, with the latter now out of the
reckoning for the finals but capable of producing an upset
similar to the one they achieved almost 40 years to the day.
Then, a 1-1 draw at Wembley prevented the English going
to the 1974 finals and brought to a close the golden era
under Alf Ramsey's management that had yielded the one
and only major trophy the national side have won, the
1966 world Cup.
The present England side would not be many people's idea
of a future World Cup winner, but Roy Hodgson's team
have at least developed a reputation for being tough to
beat.
Realistically they will need to beat the Poles on Tuesday as
Ukraine, who are just two points behind, are away at
pointless San Marino.
Hodgson is not taking the Poles for granted, especially as
they gave England a really tough game in Warsaw earlier
in the qualifying competition.
"I watched them (in the 1-0 defeat to Ukraine on Friday),"
he said.
"In the first half they played very well. They had the best
goal-scoring opportunities.
"If they play as well against us on Tuesday as they did
against Ukraine in the first half, it will be a tough game.
"But I always back the players. I trust them. We are still
unbeaten in this qualifying group.
"We are capable of going unbeaten in the 10th one (game)
and with the backing we got from the fans and playing at
Wembley, I have got to back them. I would be foolish not
to."
While England have graced many finals of major
tournaments, Bosnia-Herzegovina have yet to achieve a
similar breakthrough.
They fell in the play-offs for Euro 2012 to eventual
semifinalists Portugal, but under their former striker Safet
Susic, voted by France Football in 2012 the best foreign
player to have played in Ligue 1, they have a superb
opportunity to reach the biggest tournament of them all.
Susic, 58, and who appeared for the then Yugoslavia at the
1982 and 1990 World Cups, said that he expected to get
the three points against the Lithuanians which they will
need as Greece, who trail them on goal difference, host
bottom side Liechtenstein.
"It would be a disaster if we failed now and I am convinced
that we will get the win we need in Kaunas," Susic, in
charge since 2009, told state television BHT.
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