With the European and African play-offs completed, all but one of the 32 available places at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil have now been filled.The last remaining spot in the draw - which takes place on 6 December at the Costa do Sauipe resort in the Brazilian state of Bahia - will be claimed by the winner of the play-off between Uruguay and Jordan.The South Americans lead 5-0 from the first leg in Amman. BBC Sport takes a look at which teams have qualified and who has missed out across the six Fifa confederations. Africa Qualified: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria.Most impressive qualifiers: Ghana were the top scorers with 18 goals in six group matches and managed more points (15) than any other country in their region, though they did suffer a surprise 1-0 loss away against Zambia. But they made light work of overcoming one of the continents dominant sides, Egypt, in the play-offs, winning 7-3 on aggregate. Lucky to be there? Algeria knocked out Burkina Faso on away goals after a 3-3 draw in their play-off tie - and had a close escape in stoppage time when a clearance struck their own crossbar.Top scorers: Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Mohamed Aboutrika, Mohamed Salah (both Egypt) - six goalsWho missed out: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Congo, Congo DR, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.Did you know? Cameroon have qualified for the World Cup for the seventh time - a record for an African nation. Asia Qualified: Australia, Iran, Japan, South Korea.Still to be decided: Jordan have a mountain to climb to reach their first World Cup.The Middle East nation won the right to a two-legged tie against Uruguay, the fifth-placed team from South American qualifying, by beating Uzbekistan in September.The sides met in Amman in Wednesdays first leg, where Uruguay took a 5-0 lead ahead of the second leg in Montevideo on 20 November.Most impressive qualifiers: Japan might have qualified with the highest points tally from the group stages, but special mention must surely go to Iran, who managed to top their five-team group despite scoring just eight goals in eight matches. Their defence proved crucial, conceding only twice in 720 minutes of qualifying action.Lucky to be there? Australia managed only three wins from a group containing Iraq, Oman, Jordan and Japan, form that would eventually contribute to manager Holger Osieck being sacked.Top scorer: Shinji Okazaki (Japan) - eight goalsWho missed out: Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Uzbekistan.Did you know? On their road to qualification, Iran kept 10 clean sheets in 16 games, conceding just seven times in the process. Europe Qualified: Belgium, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, Spain.Most impressive qualifiers: Seven teams made it through the whole campaign without losing (Belgium, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland), but it is the records of the Germans and Dutch that stand out: played 10, won nine, drawn one, both amassing 28 points from a possible 30 and scoring 70 goals between them. Impressive stuff.Lucky to be there? France were dreadful in the first leg of their play-off against Ukraine, but recovered to become the first team to qualify after being 2-0 down, winning 3-0 at the Stade de France.Top scorer: Robin van Persie (Netherlands) - 11 goalsWho missed out: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Northern Ireland, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales.Did you know? Greece kept eight clean sheets in their 10 qualifying matches - more than any other nation. North & Central America and Caribbean Qualified: Costa Rica, Honduras, United States, Mexico.Most impressive qualifiers: The United States topped the qualifying group but Jurgen Klinsmanns men were not without their problems - they lost to Jamaica, Costa Rica and Honduras along the way.Lucky to be there? With just seconds left of the entire campaign, Mexicos hopes were all but over. Their defeat on the final day against Costa Rica meant Panama, playing at the same time, needed only to beat the already-qualified United States at home to book their place in Brazil. With the Panamanians leading 2-1 in injury time, the Americans struck back, scoring in the 91st and 92nd minutes, to end Panamas dream in the most painful of circumstances.Top scorer: Deon McCauley (Belize) - 11 goalsWho missed out: Jamaica, Panama (from final group stage).Did you know? Mexico won just two of their 10 games in the final round of qualifying (D5 L3), scoring seven times. They scored five in the first leg of their play-off against New Zealand. Oceania Qualified: None.Still to be decided: New Zealand easily won the final group stage to qualify for their play-off against Mexico, but lost out to Mexico in their two-legged play-off.Who missed out: New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Tahiti. South America Qualified: Argentina, Brazil (hosts), Colombia, Ecuador, Chile.Still to be decided: Uruguay hold a 5-0 lead over Jordan from the Asia qualifying group in their two-legged play-off.Uruguay ended up level on points with Ecuador but finished fifth in the group because of an inferior goal difference.They reached the semi-finals of the last World Cup in South Africa, where Arjen Robbens goal gave the Netherlands a 3-2 win.Most impressive qualifiers: In the absence of Brazil, who qualify automatically as hosts, there was a three-way tussle at the top of the table between eventual group winners Argentina, Colombia and Chile. The three sides all finished with nine wins from their 16 matches, but it was the combined firepower of Lionel Messi and Gonzalo Higuain, who between them scored 19 goals, which made the difference for Argentina.Lucky to be there? Uruguay failed to win any of their first five away games and conceded four goals on their travels in Bolivia and Colombia, but their unbeaten home record ensured they finished fifth and booked a play-off against Jordan.Top scorers: Luis Suarez (Uruguay) - 11 goalsWho missed out: Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela.Did you know? Ecuador had 201 shots during qualifying, more than any other South American team, but only 72 were on target
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 08:28:28 +0000
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