Russia 2018

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Croatia & Switzerland with one foot in the finals. More to come tonight, of course, with Sweden at home to Italy, Honduras hosting Australia and a couple of crucial ties in Africa.

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Senegal's are through to just their second finals after beating SA 2-0. In their only previous appearance, of course, the Lions of Teranga got within a hair's breadth of becoming the first African team to reach the semis before going down to Turkey in extra time of the 2002 quarters! Turkey, incidentally, hasn't qualified again since...

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& Sweden wins its home leg v Italy 1-0. In fact, Italy hasn't failed to qualify since 58 - when Sweden hosted! & of course they are the third most successful team in tournament history behind Brazil & Germany, with 4 titles.

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Aussies win a crucial point in the Honduras with a goalless draw. So a win at home, or even a draw with goals involved, will see them through. Won't be easy but they've got the inside running now.

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Adding to a miserable 24 hours so far for Kiwi sports fans (following the Kiwis, Maori ABs & 7s losses), the All Whites were kept scoreless at home by Peru, giving the SAmericans the distinct advantage for the return leg.

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Morocco through after a surprising 0-2 win at Ivory Coast. Tunisia complete the African contingent, as expected, settling for draw against Libya, which was all they needed to edge out the Congo. So there will be 3 North African teams (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia) at the tournament for the first time ever, and just 2 from West Africa (Nigeria, Senegal) disappointingly.

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Swiss through after holding NIreland to a goalless draw at home. The Republic of Ireland have the inside running against Denmark, at least, after recording the same result away from home last night. Meanwhile, Greece will be out to overturn a 1-4 deficit against Croatia a little later on tonight.

Update: Another goalless draw sees Croats through . . .

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It's been 35 years since Cameroon & Algeria astonished the world in Spain, the former drawing all three of their games - including against subsequent champions Italy - the latter stunning West Germany, and also beating Chile but failing to progress after the European pair engineered the only result that would keep them out in the final game of the group stages (leading to simultaneous final rounds thereafter). 4 years later Morocco became the first African team to qualify from the group stages, actually topping a group which included England, Portugal & Poland. & 4 years after that Cameroon were back, beating Argentina in the opener and Colombia in the 2nd round to become the first African nation to reach the quarters - where they were beaten by England in extra-time. Nigeria debuted 4 years later & breezed into the second round with a couple of easy wins against European opposition, but were beaten by Italy in extra time. Pele's prediction of an African champion by the end of the century turned to dust as the Super Eagles went out at the same stage of the 98 competition, this time with a wimper v. Denmark. But Senegal arrived in 2002, stunned France in the opener, edged Sweden with a golden goal in the 2nd round, but went out to Turkey in the quarters - also by golden goal. Meanwhile, SKorea reached the semis to mean every major confederation BUT Africa had now produced a semi-finalist (America did it for CONCACAF at the inaugural tournament in 1930). The first tournament staged in Africa, in 2010, was on the way to becoming a major embarrassment for the continent, except that Ghana emulated both Cameroon of 90 & Senegal of 02 by reaching the quarters, where they were given every chance against tiny Uruguay. But the hand-of-Suarez denied them a sure winner, they fluffed the subsequent penalty, and then made a complete hash of the shootout to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory! Still no African team has reached the semis after 3 have gone to extra time in a quarter final, and 2014 was to bring no joy either. Nigeria and Egypt look to be their best prospects for Russia next year, but much will depend on the draw.

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Meanwhile, Italy v Sweden tonight, Ireland v Denmark tomorrow night. & I believe the last 2 places will be determined when Australia & NZ meet Honduras and Peru, respectively, at the weekend, after both first round ties ended scoreless.

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Italy - Sweden just got underway. Watch this space ...

Update: Scorelass after 20. Visitors still with that one goal advantage. I'm sure everybody outside Italy is rooting for the Swedes right now. Nothing against Italy, but they just have a horrible football team and basically pioneered the art of diving . . .

Half an hour gone. Italy has one hour to salvage their campaign.

live stream !! Italy making all the play, unsurprisingly...

Good news is its scoreless at HT, but the Italians are really fired up and will likely find an equaliser in the second half which could take it to extra time and penalties, and we know who'll win if it goes that way...

Italy have 20 minutes to find that crucial goal. They've done everything BUT score and are starting to look a bit desperate with the odd dive coming in now . . .

Final mintes, Italy can't find the target with a blitzkrieg on the Swedish goal . . .5 mins injury time just commenced

FT Italy miss the World Cup for the first time in 60 years

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That's the kind of result that gives the FIFA World Cup legitimacy, of course. This is the first time a former champion has failed to qualify since expansion to 32, I believe, but 3-time runner-up Holland missed the cut as well, while Argentina's campaign came down to their final game as well. So qualifying for FIFA's big show is never a certainty for anybody. Of course, that will change when they go to the 48-team format. Hard to see ANY of the traditional powerhouses missing out then.

Whereas in rugby, a team like Canada is likely to find its way to Japan in 2019 despite being in probably the worst form its EVER been in, and this from a nation which hasn't posed a serious threat to the big guns since the amateur era. & the USA is basically there just by virtue of being less woeful that Canada! While Namibia continues to qualify by default as none of the other African teams have really managed to get their act together at XVs.

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Quick comparison of FIFA's World Cup after 8 editions and rugby's:

Soccer - Rugby

Host nations: 8 - 6 (NZ & England main host twice)
Champions: 5 - 4
Most titles: Uruguay/Italy/Brazil 2 each - NZ 3
Finalists: 9 - 5
Semi-finalists: 17 - 8
Qualifiers: 38 - 25

NB: After 8 tournaments in 1966 FIFA's World Cup involved 16 teams. Rugby's as of 2015 involves 20.

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Holy cow! Danes have struck twice to take a 1-2 lead over Ireland approach HT. Irish need to win this now. A draw with goals will see the Danes through. Meanwhile, Nigeria beat Argentina 2-4. Very impressive from the West Africans, even if it was only a friendly.

Update: 1-3 late in the game. Bye bye Ireland...

What a week for the Scandinavians! I actually picked Denmark to win this but thought they'd blown it in the home leg. Ireland need 3 goals in 15 or so minutes

1-4 ! Stick to rugby, Ireland

1-5 it ends. Denmark through. Just the weekend's NZ & Aussie v Peru & Honduras return games remaining then.

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So a World Cup without Italy for the first time in 60 years, and also without perennial qualifiers Holland, Cameroon and the US, who seem to have been regular since about the 1980s. Debutantes - just Iceland and Panama, by the looks of it.

Trivia - which is the only nation to have qualified for a World Cup but never actually played at one?

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So Australia went through I was caught napping on that one. Thought it was this weekend. Just Peru v NZ to come then, tonight European time. VAMOS PERU!!

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Peru defeat NZ 2-0 to complete the 2018 lineup.

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Pods released for the draw:

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Why is Spain in the second pod and Poland in the first? Surely they ought to swap places. Can anyone explain that to me

[Stones of granite]

Finally! A roon-ba' tournament that Scotland could play in
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42001722

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Finally! A roon-ba' tournament that Scotland could play in
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42001722

Not a bad idea. Just so long as they don't call it a B World Cup - because that it ain't. NZ could join too

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Why is Spain in the second pod and Poland in the first? Surely they ought to swap places. Can anyone explain that to me

Ah, looks like it's purely down to rankings, with the host nation shunting 8th-ranked Spain into the second group. So how on earth to Poland get to 6th

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Trivia - which is the only nation to have qualified for a World Cup but never actually played at one?

India. They, Scotland and Turkey all withdrew in 1950. Not sure of the reasons. The European pair have since appaered, more than once, but the sub-continent never made it through qualifying again.

Peru fans celebrate return to the World Cup after 35 year drought:



Kiwi response

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Draw takes place tomorrow in the Kremlin