The final first round games in Groups A and E were played this morning, and four teams are into the next round of the World Cup:
GROUP A France lost 0-2 to Denmark, leaving the France98 and Euro2000 winners scoreless and out of the tournament, and leaving Denmark in first place. Second place was held by Senegal, who beat Uruguay 3-0 [note: see below, this is horribly wrong]. Denmark and Senegal will play against England, Sweden or Argentina in the next round, we’ll find out tomorrow.
GROUP E Germany beat Cameroon 2-0 and Ireland blanked the Saudis 3-0, so both winners go on to the next round to play South Africa or Spain. Or Paraguay, if they beat Slovenia by more than three points and South Africa and Spain draw. Isn’t this exciting?
Spain and Brazil have already clinched as well, but still have one match left to play in the group phase. Group B and F will settle tomorrow, there are too many possible outcomes to go through here, but basically a draw or win against Nigeria will get them through, or if they, god forbid, lose, they’ll need Sweden to defeat Argentina. We want Sweden to beat Argentina anyway, so go Sweden!