England need point to qualify for Euro 2012

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England need point to qualify for Euro 2012

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England need a victory against Montenegro to qualify for European Championship 2012.

06 October,2011 03:38 am

Four years after losing its final qualifier to miss out on the European Championship, England will look to make amends by collecting at least the point it needs against Montenegro to reach the 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.A draw against Croatia at Wembley would have been enough for England to progress to Euro 2008 but it lost 3-2, eliminating the team and costing beleaguered manager Steve McClaren his job.If Montenegro beats England in Podgorica and follows that up with a victory over Switzerland on Tuesday, the Balkan nation would finish top of Group G and force England into a two-legged playoff.What it boils down to is that its in our own hands going into the last game, England midfielder James Milner said. Thats all you can ask for really. Theyll have to come out because they need to win the game which I think will help us.Two more of Europes heavyweight teams, France and Portugal, also have work to do to qualify for the finals heading into the penultimate round of group matches.A victory over Albania is unlikely to guarantee France top spot in Group D, with second-place Bosnia-Herzegovina which is just a point behind expected to easily beat Luxembourg, the pools bottom team.France hosts Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday in its final match in the group.Portugal will definitely be taken to its last match, even if defeats Iceland in Lisbon. The Portuguese are level on 13 points with Norway and Denmark, which visits Cyprus on Friday.Defending champion Spain, Italy and Germany have already qualified as group winners, while Netherlands has also advanced because it is certain to either top Group E or finish the qualifying phase as the best runner-up of all the nine groups.In the other two groups, Croatia will secure top spot in Group F if it beats second-place Greece away and Group B leader Russia could also make the finals with a win in Slovakia.However, the Russians would then need second-place Ireland to fail to beat Andorra away, which is unlikely as the hosts have yet to pick up a point from eight matches so far.