SCOTLAND were the main beneficiaries as FYR Macedonia and Norway played out a goalless draw in yesterday's Group 9 World Cup qualifier.
With two of their main rivals dropping points, it was a satisfying evening for national manager George Burley who sat in the stands in Skopje.
Scotland remain in second place on seven points, three points clear of Iceland and Macedonia. Norway
, on three points, are bottom and still searching for their first win of this World Cup qualifying campaign.
The group's runaway leaders, the Netherlands, booked their place in next year's finals with a 2-1 victory over Iceland in Reykjavik – their sixth win out of six.
Goals from Mark van Bommel and Rafael van der Vaart put the Dutch ahead before Kristjan Orn Sigurdsson headed a late consolation.
Australia reached the finals after they secured the single point they needed with a goalless draw against Qatar in Doha.
Japan were the first team to advance to the finals after Shinji Okazaki struck early in their Asian Group 1 encounter with Uzbekistan to give the visitors a 1-0 win in Tashkent and earn the Blue Samurai a place at their fourth successive finals.
South Korea qualified for their seventh consecutive World Cup finals after beating United Arab Emirates 2-0 in Group 2.
In the South Americans qualifiers Brazil were convincing 4-0 winners away to Uruguay in Montevideo. Dani Alves, Juan, Luis Fabiano and Kaka scored.
The full article contains 252 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
