Czech Republic, with six wins out of six, will qualify for the finals as group 9 winners should they beat Scotland in Prague and Bosnia-Herzegovina fail to win in the Faroe Islands.

Italy, who won 4-0 on Saturday bringing about the resignation of Wales coach Bobby Gould, will also have booked their ticket by topping Group One for the Belgium/Holland finals if they can beat Switzerland in Lausanne.

France lost 3-2 to Russia in Group Four on Saturday, their first loss in 27 World or European Championship matches since November 16, 1993 when they lost 3-2 to Bulgaria at the Parc Des Princes.

England, who have done little since reaching the 1990 World Cup semi-finals apart from reaching the Euro 96 semi-finals, greatly facilitated by playing every match atWembley, must surely beat Bulgaria in Group Five to give themselves a chance of getting through.

In Group One, Italy are praying that star striker Christian Vieri will be fit and on form. The Lazio striker, currently being wooed by Marcello Lippi'

sinter Milan, opened the scoring in Saturday night's 4-0 demolition of Wales.Italy are currently top of Group with 13 points from five games, while the Swiss, who Zoff's men beat convincingly at Udine last year, are in second place with seven points from four.

Group Two leaders Norway do not have a match till September and will be hoping the Albania versus Slovenia and Greece versus Latvia fixtures go their way.

Group Three leaders and second-placed teams Germany and Turkey are also sitting out the midweek battles with little riding on the Moldova and Finland game.

England's 0-0 draw against Sweden at Wembley on Saturday, which featured the embarrassment of Paul Scholes becoming the first England international in history to be sent off at Wembley, left thenormally bubbly team boss Kevin Keegan feeling deflated about tomorrow's trip to Bulgaria.