Oliver's twist

So you thought Rome was a nail-biter. Spare a thought for GERMANY, who only needed a routine win over Albania to clinch qualification from Group Nine.

The evening's fun in Hanover with the home side, ranked second in the world, playing an Albanian side ranked 115th, turned into a nightmare.

The 44,000 German fans had to wait until the 92nd minute for Oliver Bierhof's headed winner in a nerve-jangling 4-3 win.

"We saw tonight that there is still a lot of hard work to be done." gasped sweating coach Berti Vogts, who was missing striker Jurgen Klinsmann and libero Matthias Sammer.

"The Albanians put up a brave fight but we helped them by making a lot of mistakes." Vogts added. "The way we played, with a mixture of good things and others not good at all, is the way we've been playing in most of our qualifying matches. We must change that."

Along with ENGLAND, AUSTRIA, DENMARK and HOLLAND joined the party too. Hosts FRANCE, ROMANIA, NORWAY, BULGARIA and SPAIN were already there.

Bizarrely, SCOTLAND'S qualification as best runners-up only became official when Spain beat the Faroe Isles 3-1 to clinch Group Six. Twenty of the 32 sides have now qualified.

Europe's four remaining places will be determined in play-offs involving Italy, Ireland, Hungary, Belgium, Russia, Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.

Holland's qualification was by no means comfortable - they squeezed through after a goalless draw in Amsterdam against Turkey.

Cruellest story of the night came in Helsinki where Finland were held 1-1 by Hungary.

Hungary's Vilmos Sebok saw his last-minute mis-hit deflected by Finland's Sami Mahlio on to the back of his keeper Teuvo Moilanen, the Preston North End keeper who admits to being "really unfortunate".

The ball pinged into the net. Finland crashed out of the World Cup. Hungary may not be that lucky in the play-offs.

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