Turkey and Sweden Seal Final Places With Nervous Victories

Turkey and Sweden booked their places at the Euro 2008 finals last night with narrow victories against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Latvia

The Turks, involved in a battle for second place in Group C with Norway, took the lead in the 43rd minute at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium in Istanbul, Nihat Kahveci converting Hamit Altintop's cross, and held on for a 1-0 lead.

The former Tottenham striker Steffen Iversen scored a hat-trick for Norway in their 4-1 win against Malta but the Scandinavians, who lost 2-1 to Turkey at home on Saturday, finish third in the group.

Sweden, who needed a point against Latvia at home to keep Northern Ireland in third place, took the lead after 34 seconds against Latvia through Marcus Allback but Jurijs Laizans equalized in the first half and the Swedes struggled to create any chances until Kim Kallstrom scored the winner with 33 minutes remaining. It finished 2-1.

"It's always better to finish it off with a win," said Sweden's coach Lars Lagerback. "We'll now have to wait now for the draw [for the finals] in two weeks and after that we'll begin the fine-tuning of the team. All in all, we've played well in this qualifying campaign."

Portugal also sealed their place in Austria and Switzerland with an edgy 0-0 draw at home to Finland. Felipe Scolari's team needed a point in order to finish above the visitors on the night. In the same group, Serbia drew 2-2 with Poland, which means that their final game, against Kazakhstan this weekend, will be meaningless.

Marco van Basten's Holland, who had already qualified, slumped to a surprise 2-1 defeat to Belarus in Minsk, Vitaly Bulyga and Vladimir Korytko giving the hosts a 2-0 lead after 60 minutes. Rafael van der Vaart pulled a goal back for the Dutch, who may not be terribly disappointed with the result as it could mean they get an easier draw at the finals. "If we play without any focus and concentration like we did in the second half we are just an average team" Van Basten said. "I am disappointed about the second half. On this level you have to give everything and that counts for everyone."

Romania defeated nine-man Albania 6-1 to finish top of Group G ahead of Holland. Nicolae Dica and Daniel Niculae scored two goals apiece with Gabriel Tamas - who scored with a 30-meter free-kick eight minutes after the break - and Ciprian Marica adding further strikes. "I never said that Romania will win the tournament but we have the right to dream about it after such a good campaign," said the coach Victor Piturca.

Elyaniv Barda scored the only goal of the game as Israel ended their qualifying campaign with a comfortable 1-0 victory over Macedonia in their Group E clash in Tel Aviv. Barda met a cross from the right by the defender Yuval Shpungin with a header in the 35th minute and the home side could have won by a bigger margin. The substitute Ben Sahar had two good chances in the second half after being put through but on both occasions fired straight at the Macedonia goalkeeper Petar Milosevski.

Thierry Henry and Sidney Govou scored within 14 minutes in the first half to give France a 2-1 lead in Ukraine but Andriy Shevchenko equalised a minute into the second half and the game finished 2-2. Andriy Voronin had given the home side the lead after 14 minutes.

Italy, also in Group B, beat the Faroe Islands 3-1 after an own-goal from Frodi Benjaminson and goals from Luca Toni, playing in his home town of Modena, and Georgio Chiellini, who scored from 25 yards. Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner, Jon Dahl Tomasson and the substitute Thomas Kahlenberg scored the goals as Denmark finished their disappointing campaign with a 3-0 win over Iceland in Copenhagen.

Group seedings

One

Austria

Switzerland

Greece

Holland

Two

Croatia

Italy

Czech Republic

Sweden

Three

Romania

Germany

Portugal

Spain

Four

Poland

France

Turkey

Russia