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.
