Spain needed a win in San Marino, while hoping that Serbia and Montenegro failed to beat Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The first part was achieved in style with a 10-1 win including hat-tricks for both Fernando Llorente and Roberto Soldado. But Serbia & Montenegro scored 5 themselves as they breezed past B-H and secured second place in the group.

Tonight, Jose Antonio Reyes and the rest of the Spanish senior squad have a similar task ahead of them in the last World Cup qualifying group match. But the situation is easier because a win over San Marino will guarantee second place for Spain, while a slip-up by the Serbs could see Spain pip them to the automatic qualification place at the top of the table.

Assuming Spain do make it to Germany, they could do worse than take along a second Arsenal player. Who knows, if he has a good season... after all, he's not doing anything else now.

Quincy and Gael Clichy had already secured qualification in the previous matches last Friday. The former in Holland's 4-2 win in the Czech Republic, and the latter (as a sub) in Frances's 3-0 win in Switzerland. Both countries finished off with home wins, Quincy coming off the bench to set up one of the goals in a 4-0 win over Macedonia, and Clichy starting in a 2-0 win over Cyprus.

England U21s beat Poland 4-1 last night, but it makes no difference - they weer guaranteed 2nd place and a play-off spot already and could not improve on it since Germany were too far ahead. No Arsenal players featured last night, but Justin Hoyte will be interested in how the play-off goes.