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This international break is as much characterised by the number of Reds not playing as those fighting for the final World Cup qualification places for next summer's tournament in South Africa.

For various reasons, Edwin van der Sar, Ben Foster, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Owen Hargreaves, Darren Fletcher, Gabriel Obertan, Michael Owen and Tomasz Kuszczak have stayed behind.

For those whose nations have already qualified, this is a time to impress and help cement a place in the squad for the World Cup place, while more pressingly, it's an anxious few days for those who still have not ensured a ticket to South Africa.

Portugal are right up against it going into two final games at home against Hungary and Malta. They're in third place in their group, two points behind Sweden and five adrift of leaders Denmark. Qualifying for the play-offs seems like their only realistic hope, and Nani will hope to help fire Carlos Queiroz's side to South Africa.

With two matches to play in Group Seven, Patrice Evra and France look set to miss out on top spot as they trail the leaders, Nemanja Vidic and Zoran Tosic's Serbia, by four points. Les Bleus face minnows the Faroe Islands on Saturday and Austria - four points behind them in third place - on Wednesday.

Serbia play Romania on Saturday and Lithuania on Wednesday in their final two qualifiers.

John O'Shea and Darron Gibson are both in the Republic of Ireland squad for their crunch matches with Italy this weekend and Montenegro next week. Four points behind the Italians, Giovanni Trapattoni is boldly trying to topple his home nation from the top spot.

A 2-0defeat in the same group last time out for Dimitar Berbatov and Bulgaria means they need two wins from games with Cyprus and Georgia, while hoping the Irish seriously stumble.

In South America, Antonio Valencia was influential and scored in Ecuador's 3-1 win over Bolivia last time out, which moved them into fourth and final qualifying spot ahead of matches against Uruguay and third-placed Chile. With Argentina just a point behind and several others on Diego Maradon's coat-tails, it's do or die for Valencia and co.

Anderson misses out for Brazil against Bolivia and Venezuela. Despite already having qualified, coach Dunga has stuck largely with the squad that sent them to the top of the South American qualifying table.

Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Wes Brown are aiming to maintain the 100 per cent record set by Fabio Capello's England side when they face Ukraine and Belarus. England have already qualified for South Africa.

Jonny Evans will be in action for Northern Ireland's final match against Czech Republic on Wednesday. Although qualification is mathematically possible, they're counting on miraculous results elsewhere.

For Ji-sung Park, Korea Republic have already booked their place in South Africa, but he's likely to play in this weekend's friendly against Senegal. And finally, Darren Fletcher won't be joining Ji-sung in that part of the world as he pulled out of Scotland's friendly with Japan on Saturday through injury. The Scots, of course, have already failed to qualify.