Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, two teams from the region, have secured the play-offs for the World Cup!
Bosnians, who have already played at the world's biggest football event once, in 2014 in Brazil, defeated Romania in Zenica tonight 3:1 and secured second place in a head-to-head match.
And not only that, Sergej Barbarez's team will play Austria in a match for direct placement on Tuesday at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna. The Austrians have 18 points, the Bosnians 16, so Edin Dzeko and his team need a win against Ralf Rangnick's team, who celebrated 2-0 in Cyprus earlier today.
The Romanians took the lead in Zenica in the 17th minute with a goal from Birligee, when it seemed they would take second place from the Bosnians.
However, Barbarez's team continued to play brilliantly, with Džeko equalizing in the 49th minute after a cross from the right and a great reaction in the penalty area.
Everything became easier for the home team when Romanian Draguš received a straight red card in the 68th minute, just two minutes after entering the game, for clumsily kicking his rival in the head.
BiH crowned their numerical advantage with a brilliant goal by 20-year-old Barjaktarevic from PSV in the 80th minute and 34-year-old Tabakovic from Monchengladbach in the 94th minute.
Kosovo defeated Slovenia in Ljubljana 2:0 and crowned a great qualifying cycle by qualifying for the World Cup play-offs for the first time in history.
Aslani in the 6th minute and Karničnik with an own goal in the 64th minute launched the team led from the bench by German Franko Foda.
It became clear to the Slovenians in the 53rd minute that they were out of the play-off race when Stojanović received a second yellow card.
At one point, it seemed that Kosovo would play against Switzerland on Tuesday in Pristina for a direct qualification to the World Cup, as the Swedes tied the game 1-1 in Geneva, but in the last half hour, three goals from the "Sages" sealed their place in the World Cup.
Not even theoretically, because Kosovo must beat Switzerland by six goals in the final round if they want first place and a direct berth in the World Cup.
The cards are, therefore, largely divided in group B.
And the situation in Group C took an unexpected turn after Scotland's defeat to Greece in Piraeus - 3:2.
Instead of taking advantage of this and securing a place in the World Cup, the Danes made an unbelievable mistake in Copenhagen - they drew 2:2 with Belarus.
The fact that bookmakers offered odds of 1,06 on their victory shows how much Brian Reimer's team were favorites.
The Danes took the lead through Damsgard in the 11th minute, but then midway through the second half, the Belarusians made a shocking comeback - Gromko in the 62nd minute and Demchenko in the 65th minute for 1:2.
Isaksen equalized in 79, but not enough - Denmark goes to Glasgow on Tuesday in a match that will directly decide the World Cup berth.
Scotland needs a win, the Danes need a game and a draw.
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