Thirteen more teams qualified for next year's World Cup finals in Germany, with England, the Netherlands and Italy just some of the teams to qualify from Europe. Togo was the biggest surprise in Africa, advancing at the expense of the 2002 World Cup quarter finalists Senegal.

Three other European teams also made it on Saturday - Portugal, Croatia and Poland - while the Ukraine had previously qualified from Group 1. The hosts Germany making up the total number to have qualified from Europe so far to 8.

All the five African spots have also been filled, with four newcomers to the World Cup Finals with, Togo, Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Angola all qualifying for the first time. Tunisia claimed the final spot from the Africa Zone.

In South America, Paraguay and Ecuador joined already-qualified Brazil and Argentina from the South America Zone, while Costa Rica, with their 3-0 drubbing of the U.S, have guaranteed themselves the CONCACAF Zone's third automatic qualifying berth, joining Mexico and the United States who have already qualified.

Four Asian teams, Iran, Saudi Arabia and previous tournament hosts Japan and South Korea, have already qualified for the tournament.

Bahrain host Uzbekistan in the second-leg of the Asia Zone play-off, with the scores currently level at 1-1, after the first-leg had to be replayed after Uzbekistan won the first leg 1-0 on September the 6th, but FIFA ordered a replay because of a "technical error'' by the referee.

The Netherlands qualified with a 2-0 victory against the Czech Republic. Their win also meant England and Poland reached the finals of the 32-team tournament in Germany as best runners-up.

Under European qualifying rules, the eight group winners, and the two best second-place teams automatically. The remaining six second-place teams play off next month for three more spots.

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