Nine more places at Russia finals up for grabs

Only nine spots remain available for the World Cup finals in Russia next summer, with previous winners France, Argentina and Uruguay among those to seal their qualification this week.

The fear that Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Antoine Griezmann could all be sitting at home next June was allayed during the latest round of group games when 12 countries in total booked their passage to Russia.

Of those dozen, Iceland and Panama have reached the major tournament for the first time in their nations’ history, while three-times finalists Holland, Chile and the United States are among those eliminated.

Nigeria became the first African country to progress when Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi scored the winner against Zambia on Saturday, while a stoppage-time penalty from Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah the following day took Egypt to their first World Cup in 28 years.

Hours after Salah’s heroics, another late goal from Kendall Waston earned Costa Rica the point they needed to claim one of the three guaranteed places on offer to the Concacaf nations.

Heading into the final round of Concacaf fixtures, the United States were sitting in an automatic qualification berth, but their 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago, coupled with Panama’s 2-1 success over Costa Rica and Honduras’s 3-2 win over Mexico, means the Americans will miss their first World Cup finals since 1986.

Roman Torres’s 88th-minute winner sealed third place for Panama while Honduras finished fourth so a play-off against Australia awaits them.

Of the remaining nine places available in Russia – four will be from Europe, three will be from Africa and the other two will be the winners of the play-offs between Peru and New Zealand, and Honduras and Australia.

The European places will be decided by play-offs, with Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Northern Ireland, Sweden, the Republic of Ireland and Greece awaiting the draw.

Alberto Quintero holds up a T-shirt after Panama clinched their place.