Honors even

Lukas Podolski opened and closed the scoring on Wednesday night, putting Germany ahead from the penalty spot on 11 minutes, and then clawing back an equalizer three minutes into stoppage time.

But it was Podolski's strike partner Stefan Kießling – until now largely overlooked at international level – who really impressed as Germany started the match well. The Bayer Leverkusen striker latched on to a pass from Piotr Trochowski in the Ivory Coast's penalty area and the referee then judged that he was fouled by defender Guy Demel – who plays his league football at German club Hamburg.

Podolski made no mistake from the spot, and pointed towards the sky during his celebration, in memory of dead goalkeeper Robert Enke. Podolski said the team was thinking of Enke before the match.

"But then we wanted to win the game, and I'm pleased we managed to draw," he said after the final whistle.

Both sides had their chances in an entertaining first half, but the home side looked in control with Podolski, Westermann, Trochowski and Oezil all coming close to scoring a second for Germany.

The Ivory Coast fought back in the second half, and had two appeals for penalties turned down within minutes of the restart.

After 57 minutes, Arsenal's Emmanuel Eboue scored the equalizer.

However, the goal was more a comedy of errors than one for Eboue's scrapbook. German keeper Manuel Neuer tried to clear a backpass from his club teammate Westermann, but he blasted the ball against Eboue and it ricocheted back into the German net.

With just five minutes remaining, the Ivory Coast took the lead. Young Boys Bern's Seydou Doumbia – on as a late substitute – curled the ball calmly into the bottom right corner.

Podolski was on hand to rescue German pride in the dying seconds, latching on to a through ball, getting the better of defender Kolo Toure, and smashing the ball in at the far post.

Remembering Robert

The players from both sides wore black armbands to honor German international goalkeeper Robert Enke, who took his own life last week. There was a minute's silence before the match, during which players from the Ivory Coast wore t-shirts with 'In Memoriam Robert Enke' printed on them.

The German players also published a letter of farewell to their deceased teammate earlier in the day, and laid Enke's number 1 goalie jersey on the bench for the duration of the match.

Before the kick-off, a short video montage of some of Enke's finest moments between the sticks was played, and Enke's former club teammate at Hannover Per Mertesacker admitted it was difficult to watch.

"Although it was short, it was very moving," Mertesacker said. "But once the game started, we managed to put that aside. His death was a heavy burden, but we'll manage to recover over the next few weeks."

Stand-in captain Phillip Lahm - wearing the armband in the absence of Michael Ballack - said the players had come out of ten very difficult days, only to go into a very difficult match.

France and Portugal scrape through, Russia bows out

While Germany – already safely through to next summer's World Cup – played a home friendly match, other countries were locking horns to secure their places in South Africa in 2010.

1998 winners France scraped through a hard-fought playoff match with Ireland, but only after extra time. William Gallas scored after 103 minutes to make it 1-1 on the night, and 2-1 in France's favor on aggregate.

Beaten semi-finalists in 2006 Portugal were also fighting for their spot in South Africa. Raul Meireles scored the only goal in Zenica to help secure a 2-0 aggregate win for the Portuguese against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Euro 2004 champions Greece squeaked past Ukraine 1-0 in Donetsk, a result that was enough to book their ticket to the World Cup after a goalless draw in the first leg on home turf.

Algeria, who haven't qualified for a World Cup since 1986, also secured their spot by beating Egypt 1-0.

But perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening came in Maribor, Slovenia, where the home side upset nine-man Russia 1-0, overcoming their 2-1 deficit from the first leg in Moscow. Zlatko Dedic was the hero on the night for Slovenia, scoring the only goal just before the half time break.

Russia, who made it all the way to the semifinal of Euro 2008, were considered by some to be dark horse candidates to win the World Cup outright. But with the loss in Slovenia, veteran Dutch coach Guus Hiddink has missed out on a chance to take a fourth country to the World Cup.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Uruguay became the 32nd and final team to book its place in the tournament, at the expense of Costa Rica, after a 1-1 home draw that saw them go through 2-1 on aggregate.

msh/dpa/AFP/Reuters

Editor: Matt Hermann