EURO contenders face final stretch

Only three months remain before the 14 teams joining hosts Austria and Switzerland at UEFA EURO 2008™ are known - and qualification resumes on Wednesday with several leading contenders in action.

Group A games
Most of the focus will be on Group A. Wednesday is effectively a full match night for the one pool with eight teams, with three of the six competitive fixtures across Europe taking place in a section which Poland lead by five points from Serbia, Portugal and Finland. The leaders are not in action as they have played two games more than Serbia and Portugal and one extra compared to Finland.

Chink of light
That trio - all tied on 14 points - saw a chink of light when Poland suffered a surprise defeat in Armenia in their last game in June and Serbia, 2-0 winners in Finland on their last outing two months ago, will travel to Belgium aiming to close the gap to just two points. Defeats at home to Portugal and in Finland in June stretched Belgium's losing run to four and left them seven points adrift of Serbia, meaning another reverse would effectively extinguish their already fading hopes.

Portugal hope
Third-placed Portugal are in Armenia, who had not scored prior to the last set of fixtures but then overcame Kazakhstan and Poland. Luis Felipe Scolari's team will be keen to avoid slipping up prior to their crunch September meetings with Poland and Serbia. In the remaining match, Finland will hope to keep pace with Serbia and Portugal by taking three points off seventh-placed Kazakhstan.

Worthington bow
Of the other three qualifiers on Wednesday, perhaps the most significant is Northern Ireland's encounter with Liechtenstein in Group F. With wins against Spain and Sweden under their belt, Northern Ireland led the section in March but they have been out of competitive action since then and are now five points behind Sweden and two adrift of Spain - albeit with this game in hand on both. However, it remains to be seen whether new coach Nigel Worthington can replicate the success of Lawrie Sanchez.

Lowly encounters
The other matches are between the bottom sides in two sections. In Group D, Cyprus play San Marino while in Group E something has to give as Estonia, now coached by Viggo Jensen, take on Andorra with both teams out to record their first points. There are also 23 friendly matches taking place, with England against Germany at Wembley a highlight, along with Spain's trip to European champions Greece and the meeting of UEFA EURO 2008™ co-hosts Switzerland and the Netherlands.