PARIS, Nov 15: Germany belatedly got back to something approaching their old form Wednesday, thrashing Ukraine 4-1 in their European zone play-off in Dortmund to book their place in the World Cup finals.

Also joining in the celebrations were Turkey, Belgium and Slovenia, who also earned their ticket.

Now 30 of the 32 places at the finals are known with just the winners of Thursday’s Republic Ireland versus Iran play-off, plus the South America/Oceania play-off winner - either Australia or Uruguay - to be determined after Brazil also booked their passage Wednesday.

As the Germans handed Ukraine a footballing lesson Turkey went into overdrive to blast hapless Austria 5-0 at their intimidating Ali Sami Yen stadium for a 6-0 aggregate victory and their first finals appearance since 1954.

Belgium thanked a Marc Wilmots penalty in the 86th minute for their 1-0 victory over nine-man Czech Republic in Prague for a 2-0 aggregate win.

Little Slovenia, who only won independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, drew 1-1 with Romania in Bucharest for a 3-2 aggregate win for their first ever World Cup appearance.

The Germany match, however, captured most people’s interest.

Germany, or West Germany as they were known from the end of the Second World War until unification in 1990, have played in every World Cup finals except 1930 - when they did not enter - and 1950 - when they were barred - but this year were on the threshold of failing to qualify for the first time.

They dispelled those fears in emphatic style early on, going 3-0 up after a quarter-hour to easily take their place in the finals for the 15th time and coach Rudi Voller, a World Cup winner as a player in 1990, was a relieved man.

“When you think how things have been these past few weeks you can imagine how relieved I am,” he said, noting how close things had been after England beat the Germans to the punch in the group phase.

Voller added that the pressure had been hard to take at times for the three-times world champions.

“You can’t always just put the pressure to one side. But today all of the players did very well. It was a great showing,” said Voller, who added he would be discussing his future with the German Football Federation in the light of this success.

Before the game there had been speculation he would quit if he failed to lead the team through to the finals in Japan and South Korea.

But the Ukrainians helped with their tepid showing.

After just four minutes their defence cracked when Bernd Schneider whipped over a cross from the right and Michael Ballack sent a bullet header arrowing into the net.

Another Leverkusen man, Oliver Neuville, suspended for the first game, made it 2-0 after 11 minutes when he scored from close range following a goalbound header from Hertha Berlin’s Marko Rehmer.

Just four minutes later Rehmer did get his name on the scoresheet, making it 3-0 with a header from a Neuville corner to claim his fourth international goal.

Six minutes after the restart the German machine was back to its well-oiled best as Ballack, lurking in the six yard box, headed the fourth.

Schevchenko pulled one back at the death for Ukraine, rounding keeper Oliver Kahn, but it was scant consolation.

Belgium went through amid controversial scenes in the final minutes of the match. Wilmots converted a penalty given after a foul on Gert Verheyen by Marek Jankulowski.

Pavel Nedved was sent off a minute later after a second yellow card for what appeared to be dissent and Milan Baros also had his marching orders to leave the Czechs reeling with just nine players on the field.

Turkey thrashed Austria for their World Cup berth. Goals from Yildiray Basturk, Hakan Sukur and Okan Buruk in the first half followed by two more from Arif Erdem late on earned them victory in this European zone play-off.

Slovenia booked their place in next summer’s World Cup finals with a gutsy 1-1 draw in Bucharest.

The Romanians were quarter-finalists in 1994 but have since fallen from grace and they were unable to pull back the deficit from Saturday’s first leg in Ljubljana.

Romania’s AC Milan defender Cosmin Contra equalized 10 minutes after Slovenia had opened the scoring through Portsmouth winger Mladen Rudonja in the 55th minute.

European playoffs collated results:

In Bucharest:

Romania 1 Slovenia 1

First leg 1-2. Slovenia win 3-2 on aggregate and qualify

In Istanbul:

Turkey 5 Austria 0

First leg: 1-0. Turkey win 6-0 on aggregate and qualify

In Prague:

Czech Republic 0 Belgium 1

First leg: 0-1. Belgium win 2-0 on aggregate and qualify

In Dortmund:

Germany 4 Ukraine 1

First leg: 1-1. Germany win 5-2 on aggregate and qualify

South American collated results:

In Sao Luis, Brazil

Brazil 3 Venezuela 0

In Montevideo

Uruguay 1 Argentina 1

In Santiago

Chile 0 Ecuador 0

In Asuncion

Paraguay 0 Colombia 4

In Tehran

Iran 1 Ireland 0

First leg: 0-2. Ireland win 2-1 on aggregate and qualify.—AFP/Reuters