Final 2010 World Cup Qualifiers Decided after Dramatic Play-Offs

Nelson Mandela will welcome the World Cup to South Africa next June. Photo by wordpress.com

After Wednesday’s final World Cup play-offs it has now been decided which 32 nations will join the 2010 football party in South Africa next June.

On Wednesday, Greece and Algeria both secured places in the Finals next summer with wins over Ukraine and Egypt respectively, with three further teams from the Europe Zone of qualification also decided.

Portugal beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 on aggregate to book a place in the Finals, while Russia were beaten by Slovenia 2-2 on aggregate, with Slovenia winning on away goals to gain a place, while the Republic of Ireland lost 2-1 to France on aggregate for Les Bleus to seal a place in the World Cup Finals.

Uruguay beat Costa Rica 1-0 in the 2nd-leg of their play-off, with Uruguay securing a place in the World Cup Finals with a 2-0 aggregate win over the CONCACAF fourth-place finishers.

The last of the qualification places went to New Zealand, who beat Bahrain 1-0 to secure their first FIFA World Cup Final appearance for 27 years, since their last appearance in Spain in 1982, premiershiplatest.com reported.

The teams that have automatically qualified for the FIFA 2010 World Cup Finals, South Africa, plus the teams that have secured a place in the Finals after winning their play-off’s:

EUROPE ZONE (13 places available – The four final play-off places now decided):

England,

Spain,

The Netherlands,

Italy,

Serbia,

Denmark,

Slovakia,

Switzerland,

Germany,

Greece *

France *

Portugal *

Slovenia *

(* secured a place in World Cup 2010 South Africa via the play-off's.)

ASIA ZONE (Four automatic places, plus one play-off place):

Australia,

DPR Korea,

Japan,

Korean Republic.

AFRICA ZONE (5 automatic places sealed, plus South Africa automatically qualify as the host nation):

South Africa (Hosts),

Algeria * (beat Egypt 1-0 in play-off's to qualify for 2010),

Cote d’Ivoire,

Nigeria,

Cameroon,

Ghana.

SOUTH AMERICA ZONE (Four automatic places, plus Uruguay, who beat Costa Rica to qualify):

Brazil,

Chile,

Paraguay,

Argentina,

Uruguay * (beat Costa Rica in play-off's to secure place in World Cup 2010)

NORTH, CENTRAL AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN ZONE:

Mexico,

Honduras,

USA.

OCEANIA ZONE (New Zealand beat Asia Zone runners-up Bahrain 1-0 in play-off to qualify):

New Zealand *

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