Spain, Italy qualify for Euro 2012

Spain's Juan Manuel Mata, left, duels for the ball with Liechtenstein's Franz Burgmeier during their Euro 2012 qualifying soccer match at Las Gaunas stadium in Logrono on Tuesday.

Defending champion Spain and fellow European giant Italy secured their places at Euro 2012 on Tuesday.

Spain eased to a 6-0 win at home to minnow Liechtenstein to make it six wins out of six, while Italy left it late to gain a 1-0 home win over an unimpressive Slovenia, Gianpaulo Pazzini coming on as a substitute to score with five minutes remaining.

They join Germany as the three countries to have qualified by right so far joining co-hosts Ukraine and Poland.

The Netherlands is all but certain to join them as it beat Finland 2-0 away to make it eight wins from eight qualifiers and needs a point from its two remaining matches.

One of those is against the only team that can catch it, Sweden, which beat woeful San Marino 5-0.

England too took a giant step towards the finals with a somewhat fortuitous 1-0 win over Wales at Wembley, Ashley Young's early goal proving just enough.

Fabio Capello's side leads Montenegro by six points — the Balkan side has a game in hand — with the two teams due to meet on October 7.

France, though, still has a lot to do as it stumbled to a 0-0 draw away against Romania, but with Bosnia beating Belarus 1-0 the French have just a point advantage over them.

Two groups remain real nail-biters with Group F seeing Croatia leapfrog Euro 2004 champion Greece in the standings after the former trounced Israel 3-1 while the Greeks faltered with a 1-1 draw away in Latvia.

All should be clearer when Greece entertains Croatia in Athens next month, a match that will not be for the faint-hearted given Greek fans' propensity for hooliganism.

Group B too is simmering nicely for a fight to the death as Russia somehow was held 0-0 in Moscow by a Republic of Ireland side that kept a ceaseless wave of Russian attacks at bay — veteran goalkeeper Shay Given and Richard Dunne the outstanding performers.

Russia leads Ireland by two points while Slovakia and Armenia are a further point adrift with two matches remaining.

The results: Group A: Azerbaijan 3 (Aliev 53, Shukyurov 62-pen, Javadov 68) bt Kazakhstan 2 (Ostapenko 20, Yevstigneyev 77), Austria 0 drew with Turkey 0.

Group B: Russia 0 drew with Ireland 0, Macedonia 1 (Ivanovski 59) bt Andorra 0, Slovakia 0 lost to Armenia 4 (Movsisyan 57, Mkhitaryan 70, Ghazaryan 80, Sarkisov 90+1).

Group C: Estonia 4 (Vunk 28, Kink 32, Zenjov 59, Saag 90+3) bt Northern Ireland 1 (Piiroja 40-og), Serbia 3 (Jovanovic 6, Tosic 23, Kuzmanovic 69) bt Faroes 1 (Benjaminsen 37), Italy 1 (Pazzini 85) bt Slovenia 0.

Group D: Luxembourg 2 (Bettmer 27, Joachim 78) bt Albania 1 (Bogdani 64), Bosnia-Herzegovina 1 (Misimovic 87) bt Belarus 0, Romania 0 drew with France 0.

Group E: Finland 0 lost to Netherlands 2 (Strootman 29, De Jong 90+3), Moldova 0 lost to Hungary 2 (Vanczak 7, Rudolf 83), San Marino 0 lost to Sweden 5 (Kallstrom 64, Wilhelmsson 70, 90+3, Olsson 81, Hysen 88).

Group F: Croatia 3 (Modric 47, Da Silva 55, 57) bt Israel 1 (Hemed 44), Latvia 1 (Cauna 19) drew with Greece 1 (Papadopoulos 84), Malta 1 (Mifsud 25) drew with Georgia 1 (Kankava 15);

Group G: England 1 (Young 35) bt Wales 0, Switzerland 3 (Shaqiri 45+2, 62, 90) bt Bulgaria 1 (Ivanov 9).

Group H: Denmark 2 (Bendtner 24, 44) bt Norway 0, Iceland 1 (Sigthorsson 5) bt Cyprus 0.

Group I: Scotland 1 (Naismith 50) bt Lithuania 0, Spain 6 (Negredo 34, 37, Xavi 44, Sergio Ramos 52, Villa 60, 79) bt Liechtenstein 0.