Conspiracy theories

England takes revenge on Croatia, and the Slovaks and Slovenes do not let the Czech Republic advance

2. Portugal

In Europe, almost all holders of direct tickets to South Africa have been identified. On Wednesday, the Swiss national team must complete the final details of their travel documents. And only Slovakia suddenly found itself in limbo. But the main intrigue of this week is the places in the play-off round. And in some groups, rivals suspect their rivals of conspiracies.

Group 1. The Portuguese national team, which spent the current qualifying round extremely poorly, managed to recover from the draw virus contracted in Sweden. Five settlement agreements concluded in two years with rivals in the group almost buried the hopes of Carlos Queiroz’s team and his reputation.

Hungary came to the rescue. The young team of this country did not have enough nerve to fight on equal terms with the regulars of the final tournaments of the European and World Championships. In two consecutive matches with her, the Portuguese took six points. But even in the last of them in Lisbon, which ended in a major victory for the hosts, the Hungarians had good chances to decide everything in their favor even after Simão opened the scoring. In a matter of minutes after this joyful moment for Portugal, difficult times began for the hosts - Cristiano Ronaldo left the field due to injury. But even without their captain, the Portuguese national team withstood the onslaught of the guests, and after waiting for the opponent’s fervor to subside, they finished him off with two scoring attacks.

Portugal's victory would have been Pyrrhic if Denmark and Sweden had drawn. It seemed that this would be the case - lately it has been fashionable to suspect the Scandinavians of corporate solidarity. The referee of the match, Mehuto Gonzalez, apparently was of the same opinion and canceled two goals from the Swedes. But all suspicions were averted by defender Poulsen, who brought the Danish team victory and a place at the 2010 World Cup with a long-range strike. The Swedes can now only hope for a miracle - for Portugal to misfire in Malta.

While in Group 2 the Swiss team was happy to settle accounts with Luxembourg for their home defeat a year ago, Greece was fighting with itself and with the Latvian scorer Maris Verpakovskis. The veteran of the Latvian national team, who now, by the way, plays for Ergotelis from Heraklion, scored against the Greek team ten years ago. And after his double in the first half, it seemed that playing on counterattacks could again bring historical success to Alexander Starkov’s team. But the hosts eventually got things right in defense, and Gekas' four exploits in attack brought them a landslide victory. Now the Greeks can become the first in the group if Israel suddenly wants to harm Switzerland on a visit.

In Group 3, after Saturday's matches, the Czechs are looking at their neighbors Slovakia and Slovenia with suspicion. They did everything in the head-to-head match in Bratislava to retain the first two places. It’s just that Vladimir Weiss’ team, which was unlikely to lose at home, consciously questioned the possibility of playing in a major tournament for the first time, solely with the goal of harming its more eminent neighbor. To stay in first place, the Slovaks will now have to beat away, albeit dismantled, but still dangerous Poland. Because cunning Slovenia has a much easier task - to win against San Marino.

In Group 5, the team of Bosnia and Herzegovina clearly proved to the Turks that resistance, even in absentia, is already useless. The Bosnians' potential is evidenced by the fact that in the current qualifying round they scored as many goals as the European champions, the Spaniards. If you take a closer look at the lineup, this is not surprising: ahead of the Bosnians are the best scorers of the Bundesliga, Wolfsburg forward Dzeko and Hofenheim sniper Ibisevic. They distinguished themselves in the match with Estonia, and another “wolf”, Zvezdan Misimovic, gives them passes.

The bronze medalist of Euro 2008, the Turkish team, playing in Belgium, already knew the result of the Tallinn match and laid down their arms. And its head coach Fatih Terim announced his resignation.

In group 6, the Croats are looking for a conspiracy against themselves. Two years ago, having beaten the England team, they left the British without the European Championship. Now the British repaid in kind. Having lost 0:1 in Dnepropetrovsk, Fabio Capello's team actually gave the Ukrainians second place in the group. Andriy Shevchenko could have opened the scoring in the 16th minute, but, taking a shot from the 11-meter mark, he sent the ball into the post. But even with this turn of events, the Ukrainians were the winner: England goalkeeper Green was not only punished with a penalty at that moment, but was also sent off from the field.

It took the home team no more than a quarter of an hour to realize their numerical advantage, after which Sergei Nazarenko opened the scoring with a long-range strike and a rebound. From there, both teams focused on keeping it alive. But the Ukrainian fans almost harmed their team. Smoke bombs that flew from the stands almost forced the team of referees to stop the match, after which the Ukrainian national team would probably have suffered a technical defeat.

The Croatian national team, which was content with any other result in the Ukraine-England match, could hardly withstand this blow. “There is still hope for a miracle,” the head coach of the “checkered” team, Slaven Bilic, had to say. - It is necessary to fully believe that Ukraine will stumble in Andorra. Russia won there with difficulty, we suffered, the British could not score for a long time.” However, his players hardly agree with their coach. In any case, two players of the Croatian national team have already been expelled from the team: Ivica Križanac and Ivica Šimunic were expelled for violating the regime.

In Group 7, Serbia and France had no problem confirming their class with big victories. The dispersed Serbs destroyed the Romanian team, for which being adjacent to the Faroe Islands team in the standings is a real humiliation.

In Group 8, the Irish team made a daring attack on the leadership of the world champions. After 90 minutes of playing time, Italy was inferior in score, but in injury time Gilardino still brought a draw to the guests, and with it a guaranteed place in the final stage of the world championship. The Irish proceeded to the play-offs, where Duff, who had recovered from his injury, could help them.

South America. For the Argentina national team, the knockout matches can be considered to have already begun. Its head coach, Diego Maradona, could turn from a national hero into a pariah at any moment. He was seconds away from another collapse. In the match against Peru, which took place in pouring rain, the Argentines, who were protecting their shaky advantage, conceded in the 90th minute, and a draw for them was no better than defeat. But Palermo still managed to score the winning goal in the third added minute, thereby earning the epithet “saint” from Maradona himself. “Saint Palermo saved us. The Lord himself was on our side,” the Argentinean coach was baptized after the match. On Wednesday, his team will again face a match of life and death - with Uruguay. The winner guarantees fourth place and a trip to South Africa. The loser may also lose fifth place, which gives the right to compete in the play-offs.

Qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup. Europe. Group 1. Denmark - Sweden - 1:0 ( J. Poulsen 79) , Portugal - Hungary - 3:0. Group 2. Luxembourg - Switzerland - 0:3 (Senderos 6, 8, Huggel 22) , Greece - Latvia - 5:2 (Gekas 4, 47 pen., 57, 90, Samars 73 - Verpakovskis 12 , Verpakovskis 40) . Group 3. Czech Republic - Poland - 2:0 (Necid 51, Plasil 72 ) , Slovakia - Slovenia - 0:2 (Birsa 56, Pečnik 90) . Group 4. Russia - Germany - 0:1 (Klose 35) , Finland - Wales - 2:1 (Porokara 5, Moisander 77 - Bellamy 17) , Liechtenstein - Azerbaijan - 0:2 (Dzhavadov 55 , Mammadov 82) . Group 5. Armenia - Spain - 1:2 (Arzumanyan 58 - Fabregas 33, Mata 64 penal) , Estonia - Bosnia and Herzegovina - 0:2 (Dzeko 32, Ibisevic 62) , Belgium - Turkey -- 2:0 (E. Mpenza 8, 84) . Group 6. Belarus - Kazakhstan - 4:0 (Bordachev 23, Kalachev 69, 90, Kovel 86) , Ukraine - England - 1:0 (Nazarenko 29) . Group 7. Austria - Lithuania - 2:1 (Janko 16, Wallner 80 - Stankevicius 66) , Serbia - Romania - 5:0 (Zigic 37, Pantelic 50, Kuzmanovic 78, Jovanovic 87, 90) , France -- Faroe Islands -- 5:0 (Gignac 35, 39, Gallas 56, Anelka 86, Benzema 88). Group 8. Cyprus - Bulgaria - 4:1 (Charalampidis 11, 20, Konstantinou 58, Aloneftis 78 - Berbatov 45) , Montenegro - Georgia - 2:1 (Batak 13, Delibashic 78, Dvalishvili 45) , Ireland -- Italy -- 2:2 (Whelan 8, St. Ledger 87 -- Camoranesi 29, Gilardino 90) .

South America. Argentina - Peru - 2:1 (Higuain 48, Palerom 90 - Rengifo 90) , Colombia - Chile - 2:4 (Vidal 13, Moreno 63 - Ponzo 35, Suazo 36, Valdivia 72, Fabian 79) , Ecuador - Uruguay - 1:2 (Valencia 67 - Suarez 69, Forlan 90) , Venezuela - Paraguay - 1:2 (Rondon 86 - Cabanas 56, Cardozo 80) .

Group 1 I V N P M O

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Group 3 I V N P M O

Group 4 I V N P M O

Group 5 I V N P M O

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Group 9 I V N P M O

South America I V N P M O

1. Brazil	16	9	6	1	32--9	33
2. Paraguay	17	10	3	4	24--14	33
3. Chile	17	9	3	5	31--22	30
4. Argentina	17	7	4	6	22--10	25
5. Uruguay	17	7	6	5	25--19	24
6. Ecuador	17	6	5	6	22--25	23
7. Venezuela	17	6	3	8	23--29	21
8. Colombia	17	5	5	7	12--18	20
9. Bolivia	16	3	3	10	20--34	12
10. Peru	17	2	4	11	10--34	10

Andrey VDOVIN