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The F365 World Cup Qualifiers Preview - Part One

We know you're all busy people, and don't have time to follow all the World Cup qualifiers. Luckily, we're not busy and do have time, so we've put together a handy guide, starting with Groups One to Five...

Group One - Hmmmmmm....Interesting
Life as Portugal manager (the second time around) hasn't started in tip-top fashion for Carlos Queiroz.

His Ronaldo-less side made pretty short work of Malta first up, but a frankly mental game against Denmark produced the surprise result of the group so far. On 82 minutes Portugal were ambling towards a relaxed victory thanks to Nani's first-half strike, before Nicklas Bendtner levelled things.

Joy returned to the Jose Alvalade stadium shortly thereafter when Deco stuck his penalty away, but goals in minutes 88 and 92 from Christian Poulsen and Daniel Jensen gave Denmark the points, and left Carlos wandering around in a daze trying to work out what the hell had just happened.

A surprise result it may have been, but the unreliability of the other contenders means Portugal haven't lost too much ground. Both Denmark and Sweden drew eminently winnable openers in Hungary and Albania, meaning nobody has a 100% record from the first two games.

All of which means your correspondent will be reclining in a leather armchair, smoking a pipe and muttering 'Hmmmmmm...interesting' come Saturday night, when Carlos and the boys (now including Ronaldo) travel to Solna to face Sweden, such is the intriguing nature of that clash. There's every chance the games between this pair will decide the group, and with just the one team guaranteed progression, the pressure will be on.

Elsewhere Albania - the third team on four points - have an away double header, in Budapest then Braga (Portugal, thicko), while the Danes should encounter a candy/baby scenario in Malta.

Group Two - Open, Or A Bag Of S***e?
If one was being kind, you'd describe Group Two as 'open'. If one was being honest, 'bag of s***e' might be more accurate.

However, if you're a betting type, get down the bookies and stick some shillings on a 2-1 away win in Group Two this weekend. For that has been the result in exactly half of the games thus far.

The Greeks proved themselves to be torpid bores bereft of anything approaching a Plan B in Euro 2008, and on paper they're the cream of the crop among this shambles. Although we don't advise you put cream on paper. You might argue that the Swiss are half-decent, but that argument could be very efficiently countered by reading out the scoreline 'Switzerland 1 Luxembourg 2'. Israel can do something interesting every now and then, but drawing with the Swiss wasn't in the plan.

All of which makes things surprisingly interesting and unpredictable. Each game is likely to be something approaching pot luck, and anyone who tells you they know for sure how this group is going to pan out should be slapped in the face and told to sit in the corner.

The 'highlight' of the next round of games sees the Swiss travel to Greece on Wednesday, where they will try to clamber above Luxembourg in the table. The giddy lowlanders themselves have a couple of home ties against Israel and Moldova to look forward to, and after that win against Switzerland (their first World Cup qualifying win since 1972) they'll start to think they can beat anyone.

Group Three - Not As Good As They Were When They Weren't As Good As They Used To Be
The Czech Republic aren't what they used to be. The Czech Republic haven't been what they used to be for quite some time now, with the retirement of key players like Pavel Nedved and Jan Koller.

However, now even the man at the helm isn't who he used to be. Karel Bruckner stepped down in the summer after seven years in charge (he now has the dubious pleasure of being Austria coach), bringing to an end the most successful era of Czech football since 1976, when Czechoslovakia won the European Championships.

The post-Bruckner era started in much the same way his spell in charge ended - rather limply. Petr Rada, the new man at the helm, took his boys to Belfast last month and could only come away with a goalless draw, and given that their second game against San Marino was put back to the middle of November, the Czechs currently sit with just the one point to their names.

For Norn Iron, the relative success of the Czech point will have been negated a tad by the loss in Slovakia a few days before, such are the heightened expectations after their last oh-so-close qualifying campaign. Still, they will be confident of picking up at least four points from their upcoming games, away to Slovenia then at home to San Marino. Who, you'll be relieved to learn in this age of flux and change, are still rubbish.

As an aside, David Healy has now gone through a whole three competitive games without scoring. You suspect when this statistical anomaly is discarded, Nigel Worthington's boys will be much better off.

Group Four - The Big Boys Trip Up
One of the more pleasing elements to the World Cup qualifiers so far has been the amount of big boys who have tripped up.

Included in that are Germany, who proved to be very far from ruthlessly efficient last month, when Jogi Luuurrrve's troops needed three Miroslav Klose equalisers to salvage a point against Finland in Helsinki.

They'll have to cut out that sort of carelessness on Saturday, when they face their main competitors for automatic qualification, Russia. Guus Hiddink and his comrades limbered up for the advance on Deutschland by chuffing past Wales, thanks to a late Pavel Pogrebnyak winner.

The Welsh themselves made heavy weather of beating Azerbaijan in their opener, having to rely on a late Sam Vokes goal to take the points before their mission to Moscow. To give you an idea of the quality of Azerbaijan, they drew 0-0 with Lichtenstein, who coincidentally are Wales' next opponents.

However, the big one for the Welsh after that comes in Germany, when they face...well, Germany on Wednesday. The good news for Toshack is that he has some key players back for the trip. Craig Bellamy, James Collins and Lewin Nyatanga will all be added to the squad that performed so creditably in Russia, and with Gareth Bale proving to be one of the few bright spots in Tottenham's season thus far, things are looking up for Wales.

Group Five - Relaxation Ruling The Nation
Two games in, and there have been few problems for the European Champions.

Two home wins, five scored and none conceded - life is good for Vicente Del Bosque, who might have felt slightly intimidated at the prospect of following Luis Aragones.

The interesting thing about Spain's fledgling campaign is the relative relaxation around the national side. Having flung the monkey from their backs by winning in Vienna, the Spanish have developed a far more easygoing attitude to their football. In the last qualifying campaign, a 1-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina might have been met with portents of doom and predictions of failure. This time however, the giddy Spaniards greeted it with joy.

It's two away trips up next for Vicente's boys, travelling first to Tallinn to play Estonia, then Brussels for the Belgians, and with their key men - Torres, Villa, Xavi, Villa - all in blistering club form, it's tricky to see where Spain are going to slip up this time.

While Spain did start with some style, the result of the first round of matches undoubtedly goes to the Bosnians, who dusted themselves off from the Spain loss to stick seven past Estonia. They'll try to follow that feat in with the ever-tricky journey to Turkey, followed by a relative gimme at home to Armenia.

Nick Miller

For a full run down of all the matches, pay a visit to the ever excellent Fixtures365.com