The
play-offs for the World Cup Finals 2010 in South Afrika were drawn on Monday and following teams will face each other in the fight for Europe's last four World Cup tickets:
World Cup-Finalist 2006 France will face the Republic of Ireland, who still has an unbeaten run in their current qualifying campaign. Despite finishing second after Italy in Group 8, even the Titleholder did not gain more than two draws against Ireland. The first game will be staged at Dublin, which might be an advantage for the French.
Portugal joined the World-Cup bandwagon by lately securing the second spot in Group 1 and will now play against Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Portuguese hope for Cristiano Ronaldo recovering on time for the first game, which will be played at home.
Otto Rehagel's Greece has to play against Ukraine with Andriy Shevchenko. The European Champion in 2004 has constantly failed in qualifying for the World Cup Finals since 1994.
The last ticket on the plane to South Africa will be awarded in the tie of Russia against Slovenia. Guus Hiddink's Russia does not want to watch another World Cup Finals on the screen only while Slovenia never qualified as sovereign state for this tournament.
Games to be played on November 14th and 18th 2009
The ties:
Republic of Ireland - France
Portugal - Bosnia-Herzegovina
Greece - Ukraine
Russia - Slovenia
