World Cup Round-up: Fourteen more teams secured their places in the World Cup finals on Saturday, and four teams from Africa who have never qualified before. Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Togo all won their final qualifiers to secure first place in their groups.
They were joined from Africa by Tunisia who twice trailed Morocco at home before fighting back to draw 2-2 to win African zone Group Five and take their place in the finals for the third successive time.
Three-time world champions Italy qualified by securing first place in European Group Five with a 1-0 win over Slovenia in Palermo, while Portugal qualified by winning Group Three despite a hard-fought 2-1 win against Liechtenstein.
England and Poland both secured their places from Group Six because the Netherlands beat the Czech Republic 2-0 with two goals in seven first-half minutes from Rafael van der Vaart and Barry Opdam in Group One in Prague.
The Czechs had a goal disallowed and missed a penalty as the Dutch returned to the finals after missing out in 2002.
Croatia, who beat Sweden 1-0 at home, also qualified, at worst, as one of the two best European runners-up.
In South America, Ecuador and Paraguay also sealed their places by ensuring they finished in the top-four places in the group which guarantees them a place in Germany.
Paraguay won 1-0 in Venezuela while Ecuador drew 0-0 at home with Uruguay.
In San Jose, Paulo Wanchope became Costa Rica's all-time leading scorer and his 43rd international goal set his side on the way to a 3-0 win over the United States to clinch their place at next year's finals.
Costa Rica have 16 points from nine games in the final stage of the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers, to guarantee a top-three finish and a place at their second successive tournament.
The first 10 countries to qualify were hosts Germany, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Brazil, the US, Mexico and Ukraine.
The Prague result allowed the Dutch to win their group, but also meant that at worst, either England or Poland, who meet to decide who wins Group Six in Manchester on Wednesday, will finish with one of the two best runners-up records in Europe -- securing their automatic entry.
Either the Czech Republic, Romania or Sweden will take the other direct route open to the best runners-up.
The other six second-placed sides will enter the play-offs.
With only one round of qualifiers to play after this weekend's matches, 24 qualifiers are now known with the rest to be decided on Wednesday or in next month's play-offs.
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