The qualification for Euro 2012 is almost done. England will be in Poland and/or Ukraine next summer after comfortably finishing top of Group G, albeit by handing Motenegro an unlikely point and a place in the play-offs in the final game. Ireland also made it to the play-offs, and could be drawn against Montenegro, but Wales and Scotland miss out once again.

England: Ashley Young provided a rare headed finish to an even rarer superb delivery from Theo Walcott. Young then turned provider, unselfishly so, by laying on an unmissable chance for Darren Bent. He duly slotted home from inside six yards and England looked home and clear. They weren’t.

I wouldn’t point the finger of blame solely in Wayne Rooney’s direction, but his petulance and stupidity is worthy of mention; England ultimately conceded a late equaliser when down to 10 men. Not that it effected qualification, but it did end the campaign on something of a sour note and means that Rooney will be suspended going into the tournament.

Nevertheless, assuming he’s fit, he’ll be part of the squad, and we’ll be favourites in our own living rooms up down the land. We’ll underperform, but scrape out of the group before finally playing well, but being eliminated anyway, probably on the back of some dodgy refereeing decision. Probably to Germany. The squad will return amidst much navel glazing and talk of “root and branch reform”, Henry Winter will bang his well worn Burton drum, and then nothing will change.

Scotland: Brave, brave Scotland set themselves up with a chance – albeit it a slim one – of making the play-offs after winning 1-0 in Liechtenstien; Barry Bannan left the pitch in the 73rd minute with the travelling fans informing us of how many Barry Bannans there are via the medium of song. Apparently, there’s just the one Barry Bannan, in case you missed it and were wondering.

All they had to do was go Alicante and beat Spain. It was the home ground of Hercules as it happens; dare I say that it required a Herculean effort? No? Okay, please yourself. It took the home side all of six minutes to kill off any hopes, David Silva coolly slotting past Allan Gordon from Alan Hutton’s part of the pitch.

Our new right back will obviously be under the microscope, but this wonderful graphic from AS beautifully illustrates the 38 passes Spain had before Xavi found David Villa in space on the left.

That’s 42 passes in total (including Silva’s shot), one minute and 34 seconds of possession and all 11 Spanish players involved. That’s what Spain do, laying blame at Hutton’s door would seem a little trite. Nevertheless, despite looking more adventurous in Liechtenstien than I think we’ve yet seen whilst wearing claret and blue, Hutton hasn’t impressed much so far this season.

Wales: James Collins didn’t fall out with Gary Speed and Wales didn’t qualify for Euro 2012, but James Collins would like to talk about a new contract at Aston Villa.

Ireland: The Irish are in the play-offs thanks partly to a goal at the right end from our Richard Dunne against Armenia which, added to a first half own goal, gave them a two goal lead. However, Armenia got one back just two minutes later, with some reportedly less than brilliant goal keeping from Shay Given, but Ireland held on, despite being reduced to 10 men when Kevin Doyle received a second caution as the game tipped into the final 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, the delicious prospect of a play-off rematch against France was cruelly snatched from us thanks to Samir Nasri grabbing a late equaliser from the spot at home to Bosnia. It was another Man City player, Edin Dzeko, who had given the visitors the lead they deserved shortly before half time.

Man City, of course, are our next opponents when the bread and butter stuff recommences on Saturday. For once, I feel reasonably comfortable saying that we’d all happily accept a draw and won’t mind being extremely defensive in our pursuit of a point at Eastland.

The good news is that another international break is over and we’ve got all our players back unscathed. Whether we’ll be Scotland to Man City’s Spain or not, remains to be seen.