World Cup Qualifiers: Portugal still alive. Argentina qualifies.

Argentina is playing in South Africa. Maradona can breathe. The hermanos beat Uruguay 1 – 0 with a goal on the 84th minute by Bolatti. This ends Argentina’s war to qualify, as they take the 4th and last spot for a South American country. Uruguay will now go to play-offs (against Honduras or El Salvador), standing in the 5th spot.

Now going to Europe, Portugal is still alive and fighting for a spot in South Africa. Today they beat Malta by 4 – 0 and have a chance to qualify on the play-offs by playing either Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia or Slovenia, depending on FIFA’s October ranking (which comes out this Friday). So even though some of us were thrilled not to have C. Ronaldo playing a World Cup, this is most likely not going to happen. Unless Portugal makes a big mess. Which then again could happen.

( France, by the way, is in the same situation as our fellow Portuguese friends.)

Now, another 2 European countries have a guaranteed spot in South Africa: Switzerland and Slovakia. Switzerland tied 0-0 with Israel and took the first spot on group 2. Slovakia beat Poland 1-0 and ended the qualifiers as first in group 3.

Here are the happy folks with a ticket to World Cup 2010:

NORTH AMERICA:
USA
Mexico

SOUTH AMERICA
Brazil
Paraguay
Chile
Argentina

AFRICA
Côte d’Ivoire
Ghana
South Africa

EUROPE
England
Netherlands
Spain
Denmark
Germany
Switzerland
Italy
Serbia
Slovakia

ASIA
Japan
Australia
North Korea
South Korea

Related posts:

1. 6 more qualify: 2010 World Cup in South Africa is complete.
2. World Cup Groups Are In
3. The World Cup of Coaches
4. 19 Nations in South Africa; 28 Fight for 13 Spots
5. See who has already booked a ticket to the World Cup in South Africa 2010.