Spain, Italy thru'
Italy striker Giampaolo Pazzini celebrates his all-important goal against Slovenia during their Euro 2012 qualifier at the Artemio Franchi Stadium in Florence on Tuesday.Photo: AFP
Defending champions Spain and fellow European giants Italy secured their places at Euro 2012 on Tuesday.
Spain eased to a 6-0 win at home to minnows Liechtenstein to make it six wins out of six while Italy left it late to gain a 1-0 home win over an unimpressive Slovenia, Giampaolo Pazzini coming on as a substitute to score with five minutes remaining in front of a pitiful crowd of just 18,000.
The somewhat controversially world number one ranked team Holland, beaten by Spain in last year's World Cup final, are all but certain to join them as they beat Finland 2-0 away to make it eight wins from eight qualifiers and need a point from their two remaining matches.
One of those is against the only team that can catch them Sweden, who beat woeful San Marino 5-0 leaving the losers pointless and having conceded 46 goals in their nine matches.
England too took a giant step towards the finals with a somewhat fortuitous 1-0 win over Wales at Wembley, Ashley Young's early goal proving just enough, though, veteran Welsh striker Robert Earnshaw will have nightmares for a long time to come at how he came to miss an open goal.
Fabio Capello's side lead Montenegro by six points - the Balkan side have a game in hand - with the two teams due to meet in their next match on October 7.
The Euro 2000 champions France, though, still have it all to do as they stumbled to a 0-0 draw away against Romania on a terrible pitch, but with Bosnia beating Belarus 1-0 the French have just a point advantage over them.
All should be decided when they clash on October 11, though, the Romanians still entertain outside chances of topping the table themselves.
Two groups remain real nailbiters with Group F seeing Croatia leapfrog Euro 2004 champions Greece in the standings after the former trounced Israel 3-1 - which will probably see the losing coach Luis Fernandez's turbulent reign come to an end - while the Greeks faltered with a 1-1 draw away in Latvia.
All should be clearer when Greece entertain Croatia in Athens next month, a match that will not be for the faint hearted given Greek fans propensity for hooliganism.
Group B too is simmering nicely for a fight to the death as Russia somehow were held 0-0 in Moscow by a Republic of Ireland side that kept a ceaseless wave of Russian attacks at bay - veteran goalkeeper Shay Given and Aston Villa team-mate Richard Dunne the outstanding performers.
RESULTS
Russia 0 Ireland 0
Slovakia 0 Armenia 4 (Movsisyan 57, Mkhitaryan 70, Ghazaryan 80,
Sarkisov 90+1)
Italy 1 (Pazzini 85) Slovenia 0
Bosnia-Herzegovina 1
(Misimovic 87) Belarus 0
Romania 0 France 0
Finland 0 Netherlands 2 (Strootman 29, De Jong 90+3)
San Marino 0 Sweden 5 (Kallstrom 64, Wilhelmsson 70, 90+3,
Olsson 81, Hysen 88)
Croatia 3 (Modric 47, Da Silva 55, 57) Israel 1 (Hemed 44)
Latvia 1 (Cauna 19) Greece 1 (Papadopoulos 84)
England 1 (Young 35) Wales 0
Spain 6 (Negredo 34, 37, Xavi 44, Sergio Ramos 52, Villa 60, 79) Liechtenstein 0
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