LONDON — England's chances of securing automatic qualification for next year's World Cup in Brazil will be in the balance when it hosts Montenegro in its penultimate qualifying match Friday. Whereas victory at Wembley Stadium will preserve its place at the top of Group H ahead of next week's final game at home to Poland, anything less could dash its hopes of qualifying automatically. England goes into the game a point ahead of Ukraine and Montenegro, but should Roy Hodgson's men fail to win and the Ukrainians prevail at home to Poland, it is they who would take over at the summit. With Ukraine completing its campaign away to perennial punching bags San Marino, which has lost all eight of its games, conceding 43 goals, such a scenario would almost certainly consign England to the playoffs, provided it was not pipped to second place by Montenegro. An added source of concern for England is that, in its eight games to date, it has only managed to beat Moldova and San Marino, the pool's two weakest teams. Its last meeting with Montenegro, in Podgorica in March, ended in a 1-1 draw and striker Wayne Rooney has urged his teammates not to get flustered if they are unable to make an early breakthrough on Friday. England manager Hodgson has insisted that he is looking no further than his side's next two games, despite the looming possibility of a first major qualification failure since Euro 2008. He can nonetheless take heart from the injury problems plaguing opposite number Branko Brnovic, who is expected to be without goalkeeper Mladen Bozovic, centre-back Marko Basa, midfielder Miodrag Pekovic and talismanic captain Mirko Vucinic, the Juventus forward. Germany ‘greedy' Coach Joachim Loew has said he wants Germany to be “greedy” against the Republic of Ireland in Friday's qualifier to finally secure its Brazil 2014 berth. “We're greedy, we want to win the game before a home crowd and secure our qualification,” said Loew ahead of the Cologne international. “I have a good feeling about Friday.” Germany is five points clear in Group C, needing just a point in Cologne to guarantee its place at next June's World Cup and Loew's side thrashed the Irish 6-1 in Dublin in last October's qualifier. World champion Spain, meanwhile, can move to the brink of qualification for the World Cup when it hosts Belarus in Mallorca Friday. Vicente del Bosque's men need just four points from their two remaining qualifiers to seal an automatic place at the Finals with the meeting against the side ranked 80th in the world followed by the visit of Georgia to Albacete Tuesday. Whilst it would be a major surprise should Spain not emerge victorious from both games, there is still plenty for Del Bosque to ponder ahead of the expected defense of its title in South America. Spain's all-time leading goalscorer David Villa has been ruled out of both games with an arthritic ankle injury, whilst Villa's Atletico Madrid teammate Diego Costa was not included in Del Bosque's squad. — Agencies
