International midweek preview

Last updated : 09 September 2009 By Dan Buxton

England

With a 100% record of 7 wins from seven games, England can book their tickets for South Africa with victory over nearest rivals Croatia at Wembley. Having beat the Croat's 4-1 in Croatia, England managed to exorcise some of the demons from the Euro2008 qualifying campaign, when the Three Lions were beaten home and away by Slaven Bilic's side.

A draw will be enough for the home side should Ukraine fail to beat Belarus away whilst if they are defeated then they still have two qualifiers to gain the points needed.

Scotland

A draw against Holland will be enough to secure second place in the group, but probably not enough to secure a play off place as the side with the lowest points total misses out. It gets complicated as all the other groups have an extra side so the runner ups in all the other groups have the points gained against the bottom sides in their group deducted from their totals. Scotland are currently just inside the top 8 but a draw, in what is their match, coupled with others picking up points in all their remaining could see them fall to the bottom of the pile.

McFadden misses out through suspension and Gordon is injured but Brown is fit and plays as the Scots hope to secure a famous win against the men in orange who have already qualified for next summers finals.

Northern Ireland

With the group wide open Northern Ireland need to keep winning. After four successive wins they let a lead slip late on away at Poland to make tonights home game with Slovakia even more crucial.

The Northern Irish have the chance to go top and, having played one game more than Slovakia, need to win to keep alive realistic hopes of topping the group. A draw is the bare minimum as they are struggling at the bottom of the runners up table, see Scotland for details on how it works, and also have numerous sides circling below waiting for them to slip up.

Turkey

The Turks, led by Potters star Tuncay, are struggling in third place in Group 5 and are four points behind second placed Bosnia with three games left. Bosnia host Turkey tonight in a must win game for the visitors as, with Spain uncatchable at the top of the group, second place is the only target.

Denmark

The Danes are in a very healthy position at the top of Group 1 and with the point secured against Portugal at the weekend Tommy Sorenson's side can secure qualification tonight. A victory over Albania coupled with the right results in the otehr two games would see Denmark book their ticket.