Italy's Alberto Gilardino (2nd L) celebrates his goal against Ireland during their 2010 World Cup qualifying match at Croke Park Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday.SD-Agencies
Argentina's head coach Diego Maradona dives onto the ground as he celebrates his team's second goal during their World Cup qualifying match against Peru in Buenos Aires on Saturday.SD-Agencies
DEFENDING champion Italy qualified for next year’s World Cup on Saturday along with Germany, the United States, Mexico, Denmark, Serbia, Chile and Cote d’Ivoire.
France, Ireland, Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina assured themselves second-place finishes and will try to earn berths in next month’s European playoffs. Eight of the nine second-place finishers in Europe advance to the playoffs.
Argentina, coached by much-criticized Diego Maradona, got an injury-time goal to beat visiting Peru 2-1 and climbed among the top four nations of South American qualifying, who get automatic berths.
Nineteen of the 32 nations for next year’s tournament have been set. Going into the weekend, Australia, Brazil, England, Ghana, Japan, the Netherlands, North Korea, Paraguay, South Korea and Spain had earned spots along with host South Africa, which gets an automatic berth.
At Dublin, reserve forward Alberto Gilardino scored in the 90th minute as Italy tied Ireland 2-2. The Azzurri (6-0-3) won Group Eight with 21 points, and Ireland (4-0-5) is four points back with one game to go.
Sean St. Ledger’s diving header in the 87th minute put the Irish ahead, but the defending champions immediately counterattacked. Vincenzo Iaquinta took a pass into the Irish penalty area and passed to Gilardino, who beat goalkeeper Shay Given.
Glenn Whelan’s 25-meter shot got past goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and put Ireland in the eighth minute. Italy tied the score off its first corner kick in the 26th, with Andrea Pirlo finding Mauro Camoranesi for a short-range header.
At Moscow, Miroslav Klose scored his 50th international goal from six meters in the 35th minute to give three-time champion Germany a 1-0 win over Russia.
Germany finished the game a man short after defender Jerome Boateng received his second yellow card of the match in the 68th minute. The Germans (8-0-1) will finish first in Group Four, taking a four-point lead over second-place Russia (7-2) with one match remaining.
At Copenhagen, Jakob Poulsen scored in the 79th minute to give Denmark a 1-0 win over Sweden. Denmark (5-0-3), whose previous World Cup appearances were in 1986, 1998 and 2002, reached its first major tournament since the 2004 European Championship.
At Lisbon, Portugal (4-1-4) moved into second with 16 points, one ahead of Sweden (4-2-3), with a 3-0 victory over Hungary (4-4-1). Simao Sabrosa scored twice and Liedson added another as Portugal won at home for the first time in almost two years. World player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo came out in the first half because of an injury.
England (8-1) lost 1-0 at Ukraine, which got a 29th-minute goal from Serhiy Nazarenko.
(SD-Agencies)
