Italy, Germany, Denmark, Serbia reach World Cup

Defending champion Italy qualified for next year’s World Cup on Saturday along with Germany, Denmark, Serbia and the Ivory Coast.

France, Ireland, Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina assured themselves second-place finishes and will try to earn berths in next month’s European playoffs. Eight of the nine second-place finishers in Europe advance to the playoffs.

Later Saturday, the United States was at Honduras and would clinch its sixth straight berth with a victory. Argentina was home against Peru, trying to climb into the top four of South American qualifying and an automatic berth.

Half the 32-nation field for next year’s tournament already has been set. Going into the weekend, Australia, Brazil, England, Ghana, Japan, the Netherlands, North Korea, Paraguay, South Korea and Spain had earned spots along with host South Africa, which gets an automatic berth.

At Dublin, reserve forward Alberto Gilardino scored in the 90th minute as Italy tied Ireland 2-2. The Azzurri (6-0-3) won Group Eight with 21 points, and Ireland (4-0-5) is four points back with one game to go.

“We’re pleased to have it happen tonight. It would have been absurd to lose considering the way we played,” Italy coach Marcello Lippi said. “We played with desire, heart and our wits.”

Sean St. Ledger’s diving header in the 87th minute put the Irish ahead, but the defending champions immediately counterattacked. Vincenzo Iaquinta took a pass into the Irish penalty area and passed to Gilardino, who beat goalkeeper Shay Given.

Glenn Whelan’s 25-yard shot got past goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and put Ireland in the eighth minute. Italy tied the score off its first corner kick in the 26th, with Andrea Pirlo finding Mauro Camoranesi for a short-range header.

At Moscow, Miroslav Klose scored his 50th international goal from six yards in the 35th minute to give three-time champion Germany a 1-0 win over Russia.

“We prepared the team in such a way that we said, ‘We have our hand on the ticket to South Africa. We can decide it ourselves if we win here,’” Germany coach Joachim Loew said. “We said from the start that we wanted to play for a win here.”

Germany finished the game a man short after defender Jerome Boateng received his second yellow card of the match in the 68th minute. The Germans (8-0-1) will finish first in Group Four, taking a four-point lead over second-place Russia (7-2) with one match remaining.

At Copenhagen, Jakob Poulsen scored in the 79th minute to give Denmark a 1-0 win over Sweden. Denmark (5-0-3), whose previous World Cup appearances were in 1986, 1998 and 2002, reached its first major tournament since the 2004 European Championship.

“It’s wonderful,” Denmark coach Morten Olsen said. “We played a better game, so our win was well deserved.”

At Lisbon, Portugal (4-1-4) moved into second with 16 points, one ahead of Sweden (4-2-3), with a 3-0 victory over Hungary (4-4-1). Simao Sabrosa scored twice and Liedson added another as Portugal won at home for the first time in almost two years. World player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo came out in the first half because of an injury.

At Belgrade, Milan Jovanovic scored twice and Nikola Zigic, Marko Pantelic and Zdravko Kuzmanovic had one goal each for Serbia in a 5-0 rout of Romania. The Romanians finished a man short after defender Cristian Chivu was ejected in the 84th minute for elbowing Zigtic.

Serbia (7-1-1) won Group Seven with 22 points, four ahead of France (5-1-3). Les Bleus beat the visiting Faeroe Islands 5-0 at Guingamp as Andre-Pierre Gignac scored twice and William Gallas, Nicolas Anelka and Karim Benzema added goals.

At Blantyre, Didier Drogba scored in the 67th minute, two minutes after entering as a substitute, giving visiting Ivory Coast a 1-1 tie at Malawi that clinched first place in Africa Group E.

Coming off its World Cup debut in 2006, Ivory Coast (4-0-1) leads Group E with 13 points with one game remaining and cannot be caught by second-place Burkina Faso (2-2), which has two games left.

England (8-1) lost 1-0 at Ukraine, which got a 29th-minute goal from Serhiy Nazarenko.

European champion Spain (9-0) won 2-1 at Armenia on a first-half goal by Cesc Fabregas and a second-half penalty kick by Juan Mata.

At Manama, Bahrain was held to a 0-0 tie at home by New Zealand in the first leg on the Asia-Oceania playoff for a berth. The second leg is Nov. 14 in Wellington.