Sydney, Nov 20 (ANI): The European nations of France, Portugal, Croatia and Greece have booked their berths for the finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil following respective qualifiers victories and a draw over Ukraine, Sweden, Iceland and Romania on Tuesday.
France overturned a two-goal first-leg deficit and beat Ukraine 3-0 in Paris, boosted by two goals from Frenchman and Liverpool striker Mamadou Sakho, in both halves, while Real Madrid's Karim Benzema netted from an offside position on 34 minutes.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Cristiano Ronaldo scored an impressive hat-trick as Portugal survived a second-half scare in their 3-2 playoff second leg win against Sweden on Tuesday to qualify for the Rio World Cup.
Ronaldo overcame an equally impressive display by Paris Saint-Germain and Swedish player Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored the twin goals for Sweden, in a classic encounter at Solna, which featured five goals in 29 minutes of second-half madness.
Meanwhile, Croatia secured a berth at their fourth World Cup finals next year with a 2-0 win in their second-leg playoff on Tuesday against Iceland, while Greece qualified with a 1-1 draw to go through on aggregate against Romania.
Croatian players Mario Mandzukic and Darijo Srna extinguished Iceland's dreams of becoming the smallest country to make it to a World Cup with their goals, while Greece succeeded on the back of a comfortable 3-1 first-leg victory, and made it 4-1 on aggregate with a goal from Konstaninos Mitroglou. (ANI)
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