Holland clinched qualification with a 2-0 win in the Czech Republic. Robin van Persie ought to make the squad for next year, but only featured as a 77th minute sub yesterday, coming on for Chelsea's Arjen Robben, but sadly it does not appear to have been caused by a season-threatening injury. The Dutch will celebrate on Wednesday with a home game against Macedonia, while the Czechs just need a point in Finland for second. The Dutch win also means that the highest second place team will come from England's group, and that means that they and Poland have qualified (a bloody shame, to be frank, I was looking forward to a Wednedsay's winner-takes-all encounter between the countries).

It looks like Freddie Ljungberg will be getting to Germany through the same back door as Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell. He played in Sweden's 1-0 loss away to Croatia, which sealed qualification for the latter. But for Sweden qualification is still very much in their own hands, with the second of the "best placed runners-up" automatic qualification spots up for grabs. The Swedes only need to draw at home to Iceland next week (and even a loss would leave them a chance as the Czechs would need a cricket score in Finland to deny them).

Mart Poom got a bit more action in the Estonia game on Saturday than he's being seeing at Arsenal since moving to us on loan. He was on the bench to watch them lose 1-0 in Slovakia.