Several days before the final two matches in the qualifying groups to the World Cup 2006, in Germany, some of the most thought of winning teams have problems in just reaching the final tournament. This is the first of a five parts article that takes a quick look to the qualifying matches.

Europe

Group 1:
The Netherlands and the Czech Republic seem to have clinched the first two spots of the group. The Netherlands needs to get 1 point in their direct match in order to get to Germany. The Czech Republic may still lose second spot to Romania, but only by a major catastrophe.

Group 2:
Ukraine is already qualified, for the first time in their short history as an independent state. This way, a great player like Andrei Shevchenko will not have the fate of other great players like George Weah or Ryan Giggs that never played in the World Cup.

For second spot, the 2004 European Champions Greece and the third place in 2002 World Cup, Turkey, fight to the last match. Turkey has 2 points ahead, but they have played a match more, so everything may happen.

Group 3:
Theoretically, Portugal cannot lose the first spot, since they have 5 points ahead second place, Slovakia, and their next match is against a team that should pose no threat: Liechtenstein.

Second place is still anybody’s guess, since both Slovakia and Russia have 19 points and 2 more games to play.

Group 4:
This group is still far from finished. Four teams, including France, fight for top spot. Aside the team that saw Zinedine Zidane come back in order to help them reach the finals in Germany, Switzerland, The Republic of Ireland and Israel fight for the first two spots. We will need to wait for all the games to be played in order to know which teams we will see next summer in Germany.

This analysis continues tomorrow, with the final 4 groups in Europe.