Greece and Switzerland move one step closer to the World Cup

Thanks to a 5-2 victory over Hungary, the Switzerland national team managed to defend their position at the top of their qualification group. However, as Portugal also won their game narrowly against Andorra 2-0, the final game between the two sides will effectively be a case of winner takes all. Greece also made things easy for themselves in their final qualifier by beating Cyprus away from home. Cyprus 1-2 Greece After beating Cyprus away from home in their penultimate qualifier, Greece’s World Cup destiny is now fully in their own hands. Despite falling behind in the 18th minute after a Pieros Sotirou strike, Greece pulled things back before the break thanks to Kostas Mitroglou (24’) and Alexandros Tziolois (26’). FCA’s Konstantinos Stafylidis started the game and played the full 90 minutes. Due to Bosnia losing to Belgium, Greece are now two points clear in second place and can therefore qualify for the playoff round if they beat winless Gibraltar on Tuesday. Switzerland 5-2 Hungary Switzerland continued their perfect run in their qualification group after beating Hungary convincingly. The game was essentially already decided in the first half, as they got out to a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Granit Xhaka (18’), Fabian Frei (20’) and Steven Zuber (43’). Ahead of the final qualifier against Portugal, the Swiss side have a three point lead, although Portugal do have the better goal difference. As a result, the winner of the game on Tuesday will qualify directly for the World Cup. The loser will be resigned to a play-off. Uganda 0-0 Ghana Ghana’s chances of reaching the World Cup in Russia are becoming ever slimmer. Daniel Opare made his first appearance for the Black Stars since the 2014 World Cup, however, and played from the start. Ghana’s last qualifier comes against group leading Egypt, who currently only have a three point lead, but also a game in hand. Russia 4-2 South Korea Already qualified South Korea and FCA’s Ja-Cheol Koo and Dong-Won Ji played a friendly on Saturday against World Cup hosts Russia. The home side came out on top 4-2. Ji was substituted on in the 64th minute while Koo played the entire game before being replaced after 70 minutes. South Korea will play another friendly against Morocco on Tuesday.