Croats, Russians, Swiss out of Euro race

The biggest losers were World Cup semi-finalists Croatia and Russia, Poland and Switzerland who were all eliminated. Meanwhile England were allowed a back door entry into the play-offs in group five when Sweden beat Poland 2-0 in Stockholm. Republic of Ireland sneaked into second spot in group eight too when Croatia could only draw 2-2 at home to arch rivals Yugoslavia.

In group one, Italy’s draw at Belarus enabled them to get into the finals where they will hope to do better than in 1996 in England when they failed to get through the group stages.

The 1992 champions Denmark, who were not in action,took the second play-off spot and are still on course for the showpiece finals. Switzerland won 2-0 in Wales but it was too late to book their ticket.

Germany held off Turkey, who face qualification through the back door as group runners-up. The Germans found themselves in the unusual position of being strangers in their own stadium with at least half the sold-out Munich crowd being vocal Turks.

The visitors were aggressive and intent on repeating their surprise 1-0 victory from the first leg match but they paid heavily for not taking advantage of the early clutch of shots on goal.

Having dominated the opening 45 minutes, Turkey’s pressure wound down after the break and Germany crept back into the game. Only an 85th-minute shot by lone-standing Erdem Arif, deflected inches wide by Bayern Munich defender Thomas Linke, had the hosts momentarily in trouble.

Group four was the pool which featured the most drama. French super-sub David Trezeguet scored a 71st minute goal to give France victory over Icelandthat, together with Russia’s bizarre 1-1 draw with Ukraine, ensured the world champions qualify automatically.

France had appeared to be controlling the match after taking a 2-0 interval lead with an own goal from Rikhardur Dadason and a solo strike by Youri Djorkaeff but Iceland, helped by a dreadful error from France’s World Cup winning skipper Didier Deschamps, had fought back to make the score 2-2 with goals from captain Eyjoflur Sverrisson and Brynjar Gunnarsson.

However, Trezeguet’s goal, after a mistake from Iceland keeper Birkir Kristinsson, ensured the world champions qualified with Ukraine now having to negotiate a two-legged play-off.

A monumental error by Russian keeper Aleksandr Filimonov gifted Ukraine an equaliser and knocked the hosts out of Euro 2000. Valeri Karpin’s 75th minute goal looked set to earn Russia an automatic berth in the Euro 2000 Finals in Holland and Belgium next year as group four winners.

Alexandre Panov committed a foul just outside the area slightly to the rightside of the goal and Karpin slotted the ball through the wall and past keeper Olexandre Shovkovskyi. With two minutes to go, Russia’s fortunes changed dramatically.

Filimonov fumbled the ball from an Andriy Shevchenko free-kick to hand the Ukrainians a goal out of the blue and dismay the vast majority of the 83,500 spectators.

The eagerly-awaited Croatia-Yugoslavia match ended 2-2, enough for Yugoslavia to go through automatically and to knock out Croatia in group eight.

The recent tragic history of the two countries made the match a highly-charged fixture which Croatia needed to win to take first place.Yugoslavia did well to hold on for top spot in the pool after Darko Mirkovic was sent off in the 42nd minute.

The Qualifiers

Qualified for the 16-team finals in Holland and Belgium are now 12 teams: the nine group winners Italy, Norway, Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, Romania, Yugoslavia and The Czech Republic, Portugal as the best number 2 team, the two host nations.

Denmark, Slovenia,Turkey, Ukraine, England, Ireland and Scotland have so far qualified for the November 13 and 17 play-offs. The four pairings will be drawn Wednesday.

RESULTS

Group 1: Italy drew with Belarus 0-0, Switzerland bt Wales 2-0
Group 2: Norway bt Latvia 2-1, Greece bt Slovenia 3-0
Group 3: Germany drew with Turkey 0-0, Finland bt Northern Ireland 4-1
Group 4: France bt Iceland 3-2, Russia drew with Ukraine 1-1
Group 5: Sweden bt Poland 2-0
Group 7: Romania bt Liechtenstein 3-0, Protugal bt Hungary 3-0
Group 8: Croatia drew Yugoslavia 2-2, Macedonia drew Rep of Ireland 1-1
Group 9: Czech Republic bt Faroe Islands 2-0, Scotland bt Lithuania 3-0