World Cup champions face elimination threat

The final rounds of qualifying games are taking place and, by Sunday night, 12 teams will have made it to the 16-nation finals while eight more will advance to the playoffs to decide the other four.

The Czech Republic, Norway, Spain and Sweden have already qualified, joining co-hosts Belgium and the Netherlands, while Slovenia and Scotland are definitely in the play-offs.

But the heroes of France 8217;98 hope they won8217;t be watching the Euros on TV.

First-time winners of the World Cup last year, Zinedine Zidane and his countrymen lie third in their qualifying group and must beat Iceland at the Stade de France tomorrow. It8217;s so close in Group Four that France could win the group and qualify automatically if the Russia-Ukraine game in Moscow is tied.

Ukraine, powered by AC Milan8217;s Andrij Shevchenko and members of the formidable Dynamo Kiev team, leads the standings with 19 points while the Russians and the French have 18. Wins for Russia and France would mean the Russians qualify as group winners, the French go into the play-offs and Ukraine slips from first to third and is eliminated.

It8217;ll be pretty tense in Italy and Germany tomorrow and also in England, which isn8217;t even playing.

The Italians blew a chance of automatic qualification when they squandered a two-goal lead and lost 3-2 at home to Denmark in their last game.

Now they go to Belarus needing a point to guarantee first place. A loss would give the Danes the Group championship. The Italians could qualify as the runner-up with the best record. Otherwise, like for the last World Cup, they would go to a play-off.

Defending champion Germany needs only a point at home to second place Turkey to clinch a place in the finals but the Germans need no reminding they lost to the Turks a year ago.

A tie may suit the Turks as they could go forward as the best runner-up, depending on goal difference and other results. At the very least they are guaranteed a place in the play-offs.

England, which plays Belgium in a friendly at Sunderland on Sunday, has completed its qualifying games and stands second in Group 5. So Kevin Keegan8217;s team has to rely on group winner Sweden beating third place Poland at home tomorrow.

The situation in Group 8 is on a knife-edge too with Croatia, Yugoslavia and Ireland all jostling for the two positions and all three in with a chance of finishing top.

The Croatia-Yugoslavia game will be tense both on and off the field after the breakup of the old Yugoslavia and the recent history between the neighbours.

The Croatians, third place finishers at the World Cup and third in the group with 14 points, need to win to finish in the top two. And a tie is not really much use to Yugoslavia 16 points because that would allow Ireland 15 to finish top by winning at Macedonia.

Beind Spain in Group 6 come Israel and Cyprus, neither of whom have qualified for a major international soccer championship before but now are fighting over a play-off place.

The Israelis 13 points are one ahead of the Cypriots and go to Spain hoping the home team is in a celebratory mood while Cyprus needs to win at Austria to stand any chance of finishing second. A tie is no good because its head-to-head goal difference with Israel is inferior.

Group 7 leader Romania is virtually sure of qualifying and is expected to beat a Liechtenstein team which is last and has won only one of its nine games.

Portugal should beat Hungary at home and that means a chance of being the best runner-up.

That is calculated from the results each runner up gets against the teams who finish first, third and fourth in their groups.

The benchmark appears to be won four, tied one and lost one. Italy, if it finishes second, has already achieved that while Portugal and Turkey have chances to be 4-1-1 as well. If they do, it all goes down to goal difference.