England and defending champion Spain qualified for the World Cup on Tuesday night along with Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which earned its first berth as an independent nation.
Three more spots were at stake in late games in South and Central America, finalizing 21 of the 32 slots for the field in Brazil next June.
Wayne Rooney scored in the 41st minute and Steven Gerrard in the 88th to give England (6-0-4) a 2-0 win over Poland at London's Wembley Stadium and first place in Group H by one point over Ukraine (6-1-3). The Three Lions qualified for their 14th World Cup and fifth in a row.
Spain (6-0-2) won Group I with a 2-0 victory over visiting Georgia on goals by Alvaro Negredo in the 26th minute and Juan Mata on Juan Mata in the 61st. France (5-1-2) was second and will be in the playoffs despite defeating visiting Finland 3-0 on goals by Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema around Joona Toivio's own goal.
Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal, Greece, Ukraine, Romania and Iceland also finished second in their groups, winding up in Monday's draw for the eight-team European playoffs next month along with Sweden and Croatia. The four playoff winners also will earn berths.
Denmark (4-2-4) had the worst record of the nine second-place teams and missed out.
Bosnia (8-1-1) won 1-0 at Lithuania on Vedad Ibisevic's 68th-minute goal to win Group G on goal difference over Greece (8-1-1), which beat visiting Liechtenstein 2-0 as Dimitris Salpingidis scored in the seventh minute and Giorgos Karagounis added a goal in the 81st.
Russia (7-2-1) won Group F with a 1-1 tie at Azerbaijan as Roman Shirokov scored in the 15th. Portugal (6-1-3) finished a point back after defeating visiting Luxembourg 3-0 on goals by Silvestre Varela, Nani and Helder Postiga.
Later Tuesday, Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay competed for South America's final two automatic berths, with Uruguay and Venezuala having a chance to finish fifth — which earns a playoff against Jordan.
In North and Central America and the Caribbean, Honduras was three points ahead of Mexico for the region's last automatic berth, and Mexico was three points ahead of Panama for fourth playoff and a playoff against Oceania champion New Zealand. The U.S., which clinched last month, was at Panama, while Mexico was at Costa Rica, and Honduras at Jamaica.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/england-spain-bosnia-russia-reach-world-cup-210057503--spt.html
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