© EuroFootball.com
1998 World Champion France, Sweden, and Serbia and Montenegro secured their spots in the 2006 World Championship in Germany after playing the final qualifying cycle matches on Wednesday.
France and Serbia made it to the tournament by winning their groups, while Sweden and Poland, who had already secured a spot, advanced to the World Championship as the two best second-place teams in the qualifying cycle groups of the Old Continent.
Hopefuls also include fans of the national teams of Norway, Turkey, Spain, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Switzerland - these six teams have advanced to the playoff matches, where they will compete for the remaining three tickets to the World Championship for European countries.
The pairs for the playoff matches will be determined this Friday, and the matches will be played on November 12 and 16.
Overall, out of the 32 participants of the upcoming World Championship next year, 27 have already been determined, and the matches for the remaining two tickets will see teams from different continents face each other - on the same days, Australia will play against Uruguay and Trinidad and Tobago will meet Bahrain.
The following countries have already secured their spots in the 2006 World Championship:
Africa Angola Ivory Coast Togo Ghana Tunisia
Asia Japan Iran South Korea Saudi Arabia
Europe Germany (host) Ukraine Netherlands Poland England Croatia Italy Portugal Sweden Serbia and Montenegro France
North, Central America, and the Caribbean USA Mexico Costa Rica
South America Argentina Brazil Ecuador Paraguay
