England, Spain Punch Ticket to South Africa

Wednesday England became the ninth team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup thanks to its comprehensive 5-1 victory over recent nemesis Croatia at Wembley Stadium. Manager Fabio Capello completed the turnaround for the Three Lions in the first cycle after missing out on Euro 2008 as they improved to 8-0-0 in qualifiers.

What made England's victory a double-delight is that midfield stars Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard each scored twice. Former England coaches Steve McClaren and Sven-Goran Eriksson were continually criticized for their failure to find a system where both Premier League standouts could function successful for the country.

Wayne Rooney also scored, keeping him atop the UEFA qualifiers leaderboard with nine goals.

England, which qualifies with two games remaining, still could have a major say in who places second in UEFA Group 6 and moves on to the second-place playoffs. Croatia currently sits second with 17 points, two ahead of Ukraine, which has two more games remaining compared to Croatia's one. Ukraine hosts England on Oct. 10 and then plays at Andorra, while Croatia only plays at Kazakhstan on Oct. 14.

Spain also joined England as UEFA 2010 qualifiers on Wednesday, thanks to a 3-0 win over Estonia.

Meanwhile, Serbia and Denmark each failed to automatically clinch berths. Serbia drew 1-1 to 10-man France at home, but still leads Group 7 by four points. Denmark coughed up a 1-0 halftime lead at Albania, drawing 1-1 so it's lead is down to three points over rival Sweden in Group 1.

Overall in UEFA Group 1 remains the group to keep on eye on, because as it stands either Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal or Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sweden will miss out on South Africa. Sweden seems the more likely to survive, as it benefited from an 81st minute own-goal to win at Malta 1-0 Wednesday. This comes days after Ibrahimivic's 93rd minute winner at Hungary, which revived Swedish hopes.

Sweden plays at Denmark on Oct. 10 in the group's most important match. As you'll no doubt recall, the two met in Euro 2008 qualifying, when a Danish fan rushing onto the field forcing the match to be abandoned.

Portugal, even with it's 1-0 win away to Hungary Wednesday, still face an uphill climb needing to beat the Magyars at home on Oct. 10 to stay alive and other results to fall in its favor.

Elsewhere across European qualifying Slovakia maintained its lead in Group 3 and appears on track to qualify for its first World Cup since splitting with the Czech Republic. Five teams remain in line for second place with Slovenia, North Ireland, the Czech Republic and Poland all still mathematically alive.

Group 2 remains a four-horse race with Switzerland (17 points), trying to fend off Greece (14), Latvia (14) and Israel (12).

In Group 4 its down to powers Germany (22 points) and Russia (21), with everyone else in the group eliminated. As luck would have it, Russia hosts Germany on Oct. 10, so queue up your World War II references.

Italy is on the verge of qualifying atop Group 8 after beating Bulgaria 2-0 Wednesday. The Republic of Ireland remains on track to finish second and hosts the Azzurri on Oct. 10.

Finally in Group 9, the Netherlands finished a perfect 8-0-0 campaign with a late 1-0 win vs. Scotland, which eliminated the Tartan Army. Norway currently finishes second in the group but needs other results to break in its favor to gain the UEFA second-place playoffs.

The UEFA playoffs will be contested on Nov. 10 and 14.