Last Hoorah Time! Who Will Go to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup?

It's the last hoorah for sides wanting to make the 2014 World Cup with qualification to conclude over the coming week.

Uruguay are likely to be the last nation to book their place at the 2014 World Cup - the 2nd leg of their intercontinental playoff against Jordan is the last game to kick off in this qualification campaign.

Mind you, given their 5-0 win in Jordan in the first leg played earlier today, the game in Montevideo will be more of a celebration party for Suarez et al.

Mexico should be the penultimate nation to book their place, being 5-1 up in the tie - the All Whites will need all the White Noise from the Wellington crowd they can get to get the 4 goals to win the tie and book their place in the World Cup - and they can't concede a goal either.

Which leaves us with the UEFA and CAF playoffs.

The first leg of the UEFA playoffs kicks off on Friday and the tie everyone will be eagerly following will be Portugal v Sweden - the battle between two of world football's best players right now, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Both have been inspirational captaining their countries, but the fact is one of them will miss out on the World Cup. However, it is hard to say who given how even the sides are - they're both defensively weak so expect a lot of goals in this tie with the first leg at the massive Estadio de Luz in Lisbon.

The other tie to watch is the Ukraine v France - a potential banana skin for the talented former champions with the first leg in Kiev. Mind you, the last time France played the Ukraine there, they won so they'll be hoping that history repeats itself.

Greece v Romania and Iceland v Croatia are the other two ties, with Iceland making their debut at this round while Romania will be seeking a return to the Finals for the first time since 1998.

My tips? Portugal, France, Greece and Croatia to book their places for the World Cup Finals.

The second legs will be played on Tuesday night to kick off what will be a busy day of World Cup qualification with the CAF playoff round wrapping up that night too.

Burkina Faso

Speaking of CAF, it appears that Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana very much have their feet in Brazil having won convincingly in the first leg of their ties against Senegal (3-1) and Egypt (6-1) respectively.

The other three ties are very much in the balance - in the first legs, Tunisia drew 0-0 with Cameroon, Ethiopia 1-2 Nigeria and Burkina Faso 3-2 Algeria.

Nigeria should be favourites to book their place on the same night as Cote d'Ivoire, hosting Ethiopia at home. Cameroon should also be favourites at home against Tunisia.

Ghana will book their place 3 days later barring a major capitulation in Egypt, while Burkina Faso will be hoping to make history by making their first Finals that night too but they will have to do it in Algeria who will be buoyed by those away goals.

It's all on folks - next Wednesday should be a cracker for fans of the round ball game!