Its official, we now know the 32 teams that will be competing for the greatest prize in football, the Fifa World Cup and there are many different world cup packages on offer to help get fans to see all the action. The countries that have qualified for next year’s tournament are as follows:
Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Honduras, Mexico, United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, New Zealand, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and last but not least the hosts South Africa.
Now that we know which countries will be there, make sure you are there too. With many good world cup packages available, getting there shouldn’t be that difficult.
Qualifying for this tournament wasn’t that difficult for some countries either, for instance in Europe, Spain qualified winning all of their 10 matches, beating Turkey and Belgium in their group. The Netherlands also qualified without defeat, winning all 8 of their matches, their group included Norway and Scotland. The world champions Italy qualified comfortably but had to settle for three draws, twice with the Republic of Ireland and once with Bulgaria. England also made it through easily with 9 wins and one draw.
It was a different story for Portugal and France, who both had to go through an extra qualifying stage with knockout matches against Bosnia and the Republic of Ireland. France overcome Ireland with a late winner in extra time, this game will be remembered for the much talked about hand ball from Henry which resulted in the goal that won the game. Portugal beat Bosnia in both of their home and away play-off matches 1-0 to qualify for the world cup.
In South America, Brazil topped the group with 9 wins and 2 defeats. Chile, Paraguay and Argentina joined them with automatic qualification, whilst Uruguay had to battle it out with Costa Rica in a play-off match. Uruguay won their 2 leg match battle 2-1 on aggregate. This group will be remembered for how close Argentina came to not qualifying, an 84th minute goal from Bolatti helped them to reach the finals in the end.
There are many companies offering fans the opportunity to see more of these battles in South Africa, with various world cup packages to suit you, whether that is following your country throughout the tournament or just watching the group stage matches in Johannesburg or Cape Town. Out of the 32 teams competing, who will win the 2010 World Cup?
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