London, November 22:

The powerhouse teams made it to Euro 2008. All except one.

England won’t be joining World Cup holders Italy, three-time European champions Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, defending champions Greece and the other seven qualifiers who will travel to Austria and Switzerland next June.

England lost 3-2 at home to Croatia on Wednesday.

The full lineup for next year’s European Championship was finalised on Wednesday when Portugal, Sweden, Turkey and Russia captured the last four spots. Russia qualified with a 1-0 victory over Andorra but mainly because England squandered a two-point lead by losing 3-2 at Wembley.

After Beckham came off the bench and provided the cross to set up Peter Crouch for an equaliser at 2-2, it looked as if England had captured the point they needed to edge out the Russians. But Mladen Petric scored the winner for Croatia with 13 minutes to go.

Marcus Allback scored a first-minute goal to put the Swedes on the way to Euro 2008 in a 2-1 victory over

Latvia in Group F. Spain finished at the top by beating Northern Ireland 1-0.

Turkey defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0 with a 43rd-minute goal by Nihat Kahveci in Istanbul. Turkey advanced along with defending champions Greece, who finished at

the top of Group C after winning at Hungary 2-1.

Turkey’s narrow victory was enough to edge out Norway, who won at Malta 4-1 helped by three first-half goals by Steffen Iversen. Greece finished with 31 points, followed by Turkey with 24 points and Norway with 23 points.

Portugal needed only to avoid defeat against visiting Finland to make it along with Group A winners Poland.

Poland topped the standings with a 2-2 draw against Serbia and finished with 28 points to Portugal’s 27 points.

Before Wednesday’s games, 10 teams had qualified to join co-hosts Austria and Switzerland in next year’s championship — three-time winners Germany, World Cup champions Italy, Greece, France, Czech Republic, Spain, the Netherlands, Romania, Poland and Croatia.

Italy finished at the top of Group B with a 3-1 victory over the Faeroe Islands, and France finished second after a 2-2 draw with Ukraine in Kiev. The Czech Republic finished ahead of Germany in Group D by winning 2-0 at Cyprus with goals by Daniel Pudil and Jan Koller. The Germans were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Wales and finished two points behind.

Four days after guaranteeing a place in the final tournament with a 1-0 victory over Luxembourg, the Netherlands tumbled to a 2-1 loss at Belarus. Vitaliy Bulyga and Vladimir Korytko put the home side ahead and Rafael van der Vaart’s reply for the Dutch came with only a minute to go. Romania finished at the top of Group G after a 6-1 win over Albania.

The draw for the four first-round groups will take place in Lucerne, Switzerland, on December 2.

England fire McClaren

LONDON: England fired coach Steve McClaren on Thursday, a day after the team lost to Croatia and failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championship.

Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson said McClaren’s contract had been terminated with immediate effect, along with that of assistant Terry Venables. Needing only a draw

at Wembley to qualify for Euro 2008, England was beaten 3-2 by Croatia on Wednesday night.

Croatia had already qualified, and the other spot from Group E went to Russia. It was the first time since the 1994 World Cup that England had failed to qualify for a major championship and first since 1984 that the team will miss the Euro. — AP