Uruguay seal final World Cup place
Uruguay and Algeria seal places in next year's World Cup as full list of 32 countries is confirmed
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By Matt Hallam. |  |
Thursday, 19, Nov 2009 12:52
By Matthew Champion.
Two-time winners Uruguay last night became the final country to seal their place at next year's World Cup with a 2-1 aggregate win over Costa Rica.
A 1-1 draw in Montevideo was enough to put the Uruguayans through as the full list of 32 teams for the finals in South Africa in 2010 was completed.
Earlier, Algeria sealed their place in that list with a 1-0 win over Egypt in Sudan, while the European playoffs saw France, Slovenia, Portugal and Greece all qualify.
France's 2-1 aggregate win over Ireland was overshadowed by a deeply controversial goal from William Gallas after Thierry Henry admitted handling the ball in the build-up.
The Algerian victory sparked wild celebrations around the Arab world after the country secured a World Cup berth for the first time in 24 years.
Antar Yahya's solitary goal won a game that was forced after the two teams finished completely deadlocked in their qualification group.
The draw for the World Cup finals will be held on December 4th.
Full list of qualified countries
Africa: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South Africa (hosts)
Asia: Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea
Europe: Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland
North America: Honduras, Mexico, USA
Oceania: New Zealand
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay