PARIS, Oct 12: Turkey and the Czech Republic both grabbed play-off places for the 2006 World Cup finals on Wednesday leaving European champions Greece as well as Denmark and Romania out in the cold.

Turkey, who finished third at the last World Cup in 2002, needed a 57th-minute goal from Tumer Metin to win in Tirana against Albania and secure second place in Group Two which had already been won by Ukraine.

Greece, the Euro 2004 winners, defeated Georgia 1-0 in Athens thanks to a 17th-minute strike from Dimitrios Papadopoulos while Michael Gravgaard (46mins) and Jon Dahl Tomasson (49) put Denmark on the way to a 2-1 victory over Kazakhstan in Almaty.

But Fatih Terim’s Turks did enough to take second place finishing with 23 points, one point ahead of the Danes and two in front of Greece.

The Czechs’ 3-0 victory over Finland in Helsinki lifted them above Romania, who had already played their last game, and into second place in Group One behind the Netherlands.

Tomas Jun (6mins), Tomas Rosicky (51) and Marek Heinz (58) got the goals as the Czechs achieved their ninth win in 12 qualifiers.

Karel Bruckner’s men could still claim an automatic place in Germany as one of the two best runners-up but this would require Sweden to lose by seven goals or more against Iceland in Stockholm later on Wednesday.

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