PORTUGAL FOR PLAY-OFFS BUT CECH MISSES OUT

There was good news for some with World Cup hopes, but goalkeeper Petr Cech will not be at South Africa 2010. Despite a clean sheet, there was disappointment for Cech, whose Czech Republic side could only draw 0-0 at home to Northern Ireland. The Czechs had needed to win the game, and hope Slovenia dropped points away to San Marino if they were to make the play-offs, and their failure to break through the Northern Irish defence became irrelevant after Slovenia's 3-0 win.

Miroslav Stoch's Slovakia made sure of qualification from that group with a 1-0 away win in Poland, though the Chelsea man did not feature either as a starter or among the subs. That was because he was on Under 21 duty, and scored the only goal for his country in their 1-0 win away to Cyprus, driving a powerful effort in from 25 yards.

There is renewed hope of qualification for Portugal as they secured their place in next month's play-offs thanks to a resounding 4-0 home win over Malta. Jose Bosingwa, Ricardo Carvalho and Deco each played the 90 minutes, while Paulo Ferreira was not involved in the squad. Captain Michael Ballack was replaced at half-time in Germany's 1-1 home draw with Finland, though they had already qualified, while play-off bound Yury Zhirkov sat out Russia's 1-1 away draw in Azerbaijan.

Branislav Ivanovic played the whole game as Serbia lost 2-1 away to Lithuania in Group 7, while Florent Malouda played the whole 90 minutes of France's 3-1 win over Austria. Nicolas Anelka did not feature. For England, John Terry and Frank Lampard played the whole 90 minutes in a comfortable 3-0 win over Belarus. Ashley Cole was rested, allowing former Chelsea man Wayne Bridge to play at left-back, while Shaun Wright-Phillips scored the second goal.

England of course had already qualified, along with Ghana, Ivory Coast, Serbia and Germany, of the countries with a Chelsea involvement. European play-offs take place next month, when the final African qualifiers will also be decided, with John Obi Mikel's Nigeria still hoping to be in South Africa next summer.

source: chelseafc.com