Euro view of France '98 comes into focus

From 13 on Saturday morning to 20 that evening, this weekend's final round of regular group matches in Europe provided the largest single wave of qualifiers to date for the finals of France '98. While Romania, Norway and Bulgaria were already assured of work next summer, there were plenty of matches on Saturday in which one or another were hoping to earn plane tickets. There were also the usual crop of hard luck stories, the hardest of which was the goal conceded by Finland two minutes into added time when a defender attempted to clear the ball off his line but succeeded only in driving it against his goalkeeper off whom it bounced back in.

At the time the Finns were leading by a goal to nil which would have been enough to earn them second place in Group Three but a draw was good enough to keep Hungary second and it is they who now go into the hat with Ireland this afternoon.

In Group One it also went all the way to the final whistle with the Greeks trying desperately, but ultimately failing, to break down the Danes in front of a frantic 70,000 strong Athens crowd. While they drew a blank the Croatians won in Slovenia and so it is the former European champions who retained the leadership of the group to qualify automatically and Miroslav Blazevic's side who take second place - one point ahead of the Greeks in third.

Our group was, of course, more straightforward with Mick McCarthy's Ireland team needing only to avoid a hefty hammering to go forward to the play-offs and doing a good deal better than that in the end against a team currently ranked third on FIFA world listings.

One place higher in the ranking list than our opponents on Saturday are the Germans who had it left surprisingly late to add their names to the list of confirmed qualifiers. Group Nine boasted more than its fair share of quality sides but still, having to beat the Albanians to be absolutely sure of progressing somehow seemed to be a little below a team who had looked so far ahead of the rest in England last year.

The Germans got their win although it's difficult to believe that 4-3 is exactly what Berti Vogts had in mind when he packed his men off out onto the pitch in Hanover. Worse still, the home side only came out on top after a desperate scramble in the last 10 minutes in which four goals, two by each side, were scored.

Oliver Bierhoff was once again the home side's hero with two of his side's four goals and without his contribution Rudi Vata's 88th minute strike would have been enough to allow the Ukraine to take first place in the group and consign the European Champions to a potential play-off meeting with arch rivals Italy.

With that possibility removed, Italy, the highest ranked of the eight second placed teams at 12 will be confident of coming through a two-legged tie with just about anybody. Their draw in Rome was certainly a disappointment to the Azzurri but it should prove no more than a blow to Italian pride with the confirmation the team's qualification merely being postponed until the middle of next month.

As expected Group Four was the one to produce two automatic qualifers. Austria had little trouble beating Belarus to complete a highly satisfactory campaign with 25 points while Craig Brown's side put two past Latvia to ensure that they were the best of the nine runners up and therefore a qualifier by right.

Russia gained some revenge for their defeat last month in Sofia by beating Bulgaria 4-2 but the placings had already been decided with the semi-finalists from 1994 already through once more. It was almost as clearcut in Group Six where the Faroe Isles would have had to produce an historic upset to prevent Spain coming first and Yugoslavia second. They didn't.

In the last of the European groups, number seven, Belgium got the three points they needed to be sure of second place and Holland the point they required to wrap up first spot. Elsewhere Mexico, needing a win over Canada to be certain of coming out of the CONCACAF group drew 2-2 in Edmonton and now need a point from their three remaining games. And in the early hours of this morning Peru were due to take on Chile in Santiago where a win for the Peruvians would add their name to the list of certain qualifiers.