The long road to South Africa continues as the next round of qualifiers come around. Most fans aren’t lucky enough to get tickets to see World Cup qualifiers live so watching live online streaming via free-football.tv on the Live Sports Network provides a fantastic opportunity to view the internationals on your laptop.

Surprise Group 1 pacesetters Albania face two difficult away ties in Hungary and Portugal. The second placed Swedes also face the Portuguese but on home turf whilst pointless Malta will hope to change that at home to Hungary although a trip to Copenhagen may not prove quite as fruitful.

 

 

Former European Champions Greece will look to build on their 100% start by winning both home legs against group minnows Moldova and Euro 2008 joint hosts Switzerland. Israel face two tricky away matches, playing Luxembourg and Latvia in quick succession whilst

Group 3 sees some serious Eastern European competition with Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic all in action in the region and all 6 teams in action both at home and away. Leaders Poland face the Czech’s at home but must travel to Slovakia whilst Slovenia who also have 4 points will be confident of a result when they entertain Northern Ireland but more cautious on their visit to the Czechs home pad. Whipping boys San Marino may not manage to break their duck against Slovakia but historic good performances against the Home Nations will engender some hope of a result in Northern Ireland.

Germany at home to Russia is one of the top ties of the round let alone of group 4. Both follow up this potential classic at home to Wales and Finland respectively, games both will expect to win. Wales other fixture is in Cardiff against Liechtenstein, one they need to win and win well if they are to stay in contention with the big two. The Finns play their third qualifier at home to Azerbaijan and they may require a win to lift themselves off the bottom of the group.

European Champions and group leaders Spain travel to Estonia and Belgium looking to continue their rich vein of form from the summer. Nearest chasers Turkey could keep the pressure on by taking maximum points from the home game against Bosnia-Herzegovina and their trip to Estonia.

Only four games in Group 6 but massive interest nonetheless. England will feel the wrath of not only Fabio Capello but the nation as a whole if they fail to beat Kazakhstan on home soil but the journey to Belarus will evoke painful memories of similar trips east and nerves will jangle if all does not start smoothly. Croatia, the team that knocked England out of Euro 2008, also play twice travelling to Ukraine before returning home to face an Andorra side that gave England so much trouble.

 

 

The French are not used to languishing in third place in qualifying groups so the group 7 ties may mean a lot of anguish on the Gallic side of the channel. Group leaders Lithuania have a great opportunity to cement their credentials as serious challengers for qualification with a visit to Serbia followed by a home game against the Faroe Islands. France travel to Romania and whilst they may return to Paris with all three points, second place Austria’s return flight from the Faroe’s should produce a similar result to the Lithuanian one and the subsequent entertaining of Serbia may give more garlic-laced food for thought for the 1998 World Champions.

Another team looking to enhance their qualification chances are Italy and with the visit of group 8 draw specialists Montenegro coming on the back of the trip to Bulgaria, the Rep of Ireland’s result at home to Cyprus looks even more important if the Italians are not to disappear over the horizon at such an early stage of qualification. However, if Bulgaria were to get a result against the Azzurri, the follow-up match in bottom-of-the-table Georgia could lift them into contention. 

Group 9 is possibly the most open at present with Holland, FYR Macedonia and Scotland all on 3 points. The Dutch have the players and the history to maintain a strong qualification performance and the up and coming matches against the Nordic bloc of Iceland and Norway provide a further opportunity to make progress towards South Africa. The Scots’ must find the type of form that took them to the very brink of the Euro 2008 finals if they are to stand any chance of planning for a similar journey in four years time and the visit of Norway to Hampden Park is an ideal way to start. Iceland will look to the visit of FYR Macedonia to boost their flagging morale both as a team and a nation.

An awful lot of live football to look forward to and a tremendous opportunity to watch the FIFA World Cup qualifiers via live online streaming thanks to Live Sports Network. Make the most of the chance to see the teams that could contest the 2012 FIFA World Cup Final’s live through your pc on free-football.tv.