In Group F, Portugal beat Luxembourg 3-0 with goals from Varela, Nani and Helder Postiga (see video), but still had to finish second in the group.
In the match at the same time, even though Azerbaijan equalized 1-1 at the 90th minute, Russia still had the point needed to maintain the top spot with 22 points, exactly one point more than Portugal.
A similar scenario happened with France in Group I, when their 3-0 victory over Finland (see video), with goals from Ribery, Benzema and an anti-kick in between, became meaningless.
The efforts of Ribery and the French team (blue shirt) in the last round were not enough to help them reverse the situation.
In Group H, as England decided to take first place by defeating Poland 2-0 with goals from Rooney and Gerrard (see video), Ukraine sadly finished in second place, with 1 point.
In Group G, Greece also had to accept second place and participate in the play-off round despite winning 2-0 at home against Liechtenstein.
According to regulations, the European region will have nine direct tickets to the 2014 World Cup for the nine teams ranked first in the qualifying round.
Denmark won 6-0 in the final round when hosting Malta, but still could not avoid the tragedy of being left out of the play-off round.
The unlucky second-place team to be left out this time is Denmark, the second-place team from Group B. `The Brave Soldiers` – the nickname of the Nordic team – has only 16 points from the qualifying journey, the lowest in the group.
In Group D, despite winning tickets for two matches early, the Netherlands still played football with the most serious attitude possible and won 2-0, with goals from Robben and Sneijder right at Türkiye’s Saracoglu den (see video).
Like Türkiye, Group E also witnessed a similar tragedy in Slovenia.
Türkiye (red shirt) had bad luck when they were blocked by Robben’s Netherlands who won the ticket but still played their best.
Groups A and C have determined the runners-up from the previous matches, with Sweden (C) and Croatia (A).
The draw for four European play-off pairs will be conducted by UEFA at its headquarters in Zurich (Switzerland) on October 21.
Teams have won tickets to the 2014 World Cup
Host: Brazil
Europe: Belgium (group A), Italy (group B), Germany (group C), Netherlands (group D), Switzerland (group E), Russia (group F), Bosnia & Herzegovina (group G), England
South America: Argentina, Colombia
Asia: Japan, Korea, Iran, Australia
North America and Caribbean: USA, Costa Rica
* 8 European teams must compete for tickets: Croatia, Sweden, Romania, Iceland, Portugal, Greece, Ukraine, France.