Joy and despair on the road to Euro 2008

England manager Steve McClaren paid for England's failure when he was told Thursday, less than 24 hours after a dismal 3-2 defeat at Wembley, that his services were no longer required.

 McClaren, who had a contract until the 2010 World Cup, had just 18 games in charge, the shortest tenure of any England coach.

 England became the only one of the traditional top-tier teams to fail to join next June's jamboree.

 There were plenty of scrapes along the way for some of the others - world champions Italy, France and Spain were among those with uncertainties of one kind or another - but in the end they are among the 14 qualifiers to join the two co-hosts at the June 7-29 tournament.

 The draw on December 2 in Lucerne, Switzerland will feature four groups of four with Austria and Switzerland as hosts heading two of the groups, Greece as defending champion a third, and the Netherlands - based on having the best World Cup qualifying and European Championship qualifying results - the fourth.

 England's press were scathing after the national team, needing only a point to secure their place at Euro 2008, had their failings exposed by Croatia.

 "Hopeless, hapless, helpless," the Guardian said in a headline.

 "On a night when a clean sheet would have been enough to qualify, to concede one goal was unfortunate, to concede three was, frankly, pathetic," the Times wrote.

 Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson in announcing the sacking of McClaren, promised "a full root and branch examination of the whole England senior team set-up."

   Meanwhile as England began their inquest, there were celebrations in Turkey, Russia, Sweden and Portugal.

 Nowhere were they greater than in Russia, who thanks to Croatia's victory and a narrow 1-0 win at Andorra, secured what looked beforehand to be an unlikely qualification.

 The Russia press hailed Croatia, with Soviet Sport splashing, "Thank You Croatia!", while Sport Express screamed "It's A Miracle!!!"

   "Croatia performed with truly manly character and did honour to the principles of fair play," said the team's Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, who led South Korea to the World Cup semi-finals in 2002 and Australia to the knock-out stages for the first time four years ago.

 Turkey got through with a 1-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sweden booked their ticket with a 2-1 defeat of Latvia, and Portugal got the point they needed with a goalless home draw with Finland.

 Defending champions Greece meanwhile finished the qualification with the best mark of 10 victories and the highest points total of 31.

 "First once again. Rehhagel breaks one record after the other," wrote Sportime, hailing German coach Otto Rehhagel who in his 75th match in charge saw his Greece team notch a 2-1 win at Hungary.

 It means Rehhagel has now overtaken Alketas Panagoulias, who led Greece to the 1980 European Championships in Italy and the 1994 World Cup in the United States.

 "In the more than six years that I've been in Greece more than 75 coaches have been sacked worldwide, which makes it even more astonishing," said Rehhagel who will be 70 next year.

 Spain coach Luis Aragones is also a happy man after his team in the end qualified with some ease after a difficult early start with defeats in Northern Ireland and Sweden.

 "I was always convinced we would qualify," said Aragones. "I congratulated the players and told them we have to carry on the same vein because now we have seven months to prepare for the European Championship."

   Germany, who could afford a 0-0 home draw with Wales, will also be among the favourites, having become the first team to qualify. The Germans will also be the first side to feature in 10 European Championships.

 They have played in every tournament since winning the 1972 edition in Belgium as West Germany. They also triumphed in 1980 and 1996, and will go into the draw alongside seven other former champions - Greece (2004), France (1984 and 2000), Netherlands (1988), Czech Republic (1976 as Czechoslovakia), Italy (1968), Spain (1964) and Russia (1960 as USSR). 

DPA