Portugal eased their some of their fears of failing to qualifying for the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Hungary. Pepe scored in the 10th minute and the defense made it stand up.

The group becomes interesting with Sweden winning against Malta and Denmark drawing with Albania to keep the congestion at the top of the table.

Group 1

Malta 0 - 1 Sweden
Albania 1 - 1 Denmark
Hungary 0 - 1 Portugal

Switzerland still sits on top of the Group 2 table with their 2-2 draw to Latvia. Switzerland needed a 80th minute strike to take a share of the points. The biggest mover on the table was Israel who scored a 7-0 win over Luxembourg. Elyaniv Barda knocked in a first half hat trick and Sahar added a second half brace.

Group 2

Israel 7 - 0 Luxembourg
Latvia 2 - 2 Switzerland
Moldova 1 - 1 Greece

Slovakia took a step closer to qualification with their 2-0 win over Northern Ireland and put some distance between the first and second place teams. The visitors knocked one in on either side of halftime.

Group 3

Czech Republic 7 - 0 San Marino
Northern Ireland 0 - 2 Slovakia
Slovenia 3 - 0 Poland

Russia swept aside Wales 3-1 to keep the pressure on Germany for the top spot in Group 4. Andrey Arshavin created a fine goal for Igor Semshov to open the scoring but Wales leveled from James Collins. The score remained tied until the 71st minute when Russia’s Ignashevich knocked in the winner followed by an insurance goal in the 90th minute from Paylyuchenko.

Germany strolled past a 10 man Azerbaijan 4-0. Michael Ballack opened the scoring from the spot in the first half and Miroslav Klose knocked in a second half brace with Lucas Podolski finishing things off.

Group 4

Liechtenstein 1 - 1 Finland
Germany 4 - 0 Azerbaijan
Wales 1 - 3 Russia

After holding a 1-0 advantage most of the match, Spain ran away with a 3-0 win over Estonia to keep their hold on Group 5 action. Second place Bosnia-Herzegovina and third place Turkey exchanged first half goals and ended 1-1 to lose pace with Spain at the top of the table.

Group 5

Armenia 2 - 1 Belgium
Bosnia-Herzegovina 1 - 1 Turkey
Spain 1 - 0 Estonia

England booked their ticket to the World Cup finals with a dominant performance at Wembley as Croatia were hammered 5-1 on Wednesday night. Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard scored two goals while Wayne Rooney added a one late.

Group 6

Belarus 0 - 0 Ukraine
Andorra 1 - 3 Kazakhstan
England 5 - 1 Croatia

Serbia kept their distance between second place France with a 1-1 draw. France was playing a man down and went down a goal from a 13th minute Milijas penalty but France superman Thierry Henry leveled matters in the 31st minute and held on for the away draw.

Faroe Islands picked up their first win of the campaign with their 2-1 win over Lithuania.

Group 7

Faroe Islands 2 - 1 Lithuania
Romania 1 - 1 Austria
Serbia 1 - 1 France

Italy defeated Bulgaria 2-0 to put some distance between them and all chasers in Group 8. Fabio Grosso and Iaquinta scored in the first half for the Azzurri.

Group 8

Montenegro 1 - 1 Cyprus
Italy 2 - 0 Bulgaria

Holland continued their impressive march to the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Scotland.

Group 9

Norway 2 - 1 Rep. of Macedonia
Scotland 0 - 1 Holland

(Soccer365.com)