Puzzle completed

The final teams for the 2014 World Cup were revealed after play-off matches were completed. Ukraine took a healthy 2-0 lead to Paris where the French hit back with 3 goals to celebrate qualification while a Christiano Ronaldo hat-trick in Sweden gave Portugal a 3-2 win and a place in Brazil. Uruguay were held to a goalless draw by Jordan in Montevideo having earlier slaughtered their opponent 5-0 in Amman while in Africa Tunisia were thumped 4-1 away to Cameroon who were joined by Ghana despite their 2-1 defeat in Egypt.

In the Asian Cup qualifiers Iran continued to move up the rankings with a 3-0 win in Thailand and a 4-1 away victory over Lebanon who had earlier held their Kuwaiti hosts to a goalless draw. In other matches across Asia Syria travelled to Iran where they put 4 past Singapore without reply while Uzbekistan won 3-0 in Vietnam and Iraq picked up a 2-0 win away to Indonesia.

In the ABCS tournament Bonaire finished third with a 2-1 win over Aruba while Suriname won the tournament with a 3-1 victory over hosts Curacao in the final.

Among friendly matches Trinidad & Tobago won by a single goal in Jamaica while Belgium lost 3-2 at home to Japan and Spain were beaten 1-0 in South Africa. 

The final push

With many countries already looking forward to participation in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, two days in October gave the remaining hopefuls the chance to claim a place in the finals or play-offs. Croatia qualified for the play-offs despite ending their group matches with two defeats; going down 2-1 at home to group winners Belgium -who were later held to a 1-1 draw at home to Wales- and losing 2-0 in Scotland. Armenia continued to impress, but fell short of the play-offs ending their campaign with a 2-1 home win over Bulgaria and a 2-2 draw in Italy having twice led the four times world champions in Naples, while the Czech Republic who defeated Malta 4-1 and Bulgaria 1-0 in away matches also failed to progress from their group. Having already qualified for the finals, Germany came from behind to widen the gap between themselves and their hosts with a 5-3 win in Sweden, while the Dutch showed no mercy hammering the hapless Hungarians 8-1 in Amsterdam before winning 2-0 in Turkey, who had enjoyed the reverse result in Estonia, to finish their group well ahead of Romania who had earlier won 4-0 in Andorra. Portugal dropped vital points when a late goal gave Israel a 1-1 draw in Lisbon while Russia were winning 4-0 in Luxembourg and the Israelis themselves were held to a 1-1 home draw by Northern Ireland 4 days later. Among other noteworthy results in Europe were Latvia's 2-0 loss in Lithuania and Spain's narrow 2-1 win at home to lowly Belarus, while by far the most surprising result was Moldova's 5-2 triumph in Montenegro moving them above their hosts in the rankings.

In South America Uruguay lost 1-0 in Ecuador, but returned home to defeat Argentina 3-2 and qualify for the play-offs while Paraguay drew 1-1 in Venezuela and lost 2-1 at home to Colombia to finish bottom of the group below Bolivia who finished with a 1-1 draw in Peru.

In North America Mexico's 2-1 win at home to Panama on the penultimate day proved priceless as they scraped through to the play-offs while in Africa the first leg of the play-offs saw Ghana bury Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi.

In Asia the continental qualifiers saw Syria lose 2-1 in Singapore and Iraq surrender 2-0 to Saudi Arabia in Jordan while Qatar put 6 past their visitors from Yemen without reply having lost 2-1 at home to Vietnam in a friendly earlier in the month. In another friendly match the Philippines were beaten 2-1 at home to Taiwan.