Mexico and defending champion Italy qualified for next year's World Cup on Saturday along with Germany, Denmark, Serbia, Chile and the Ivory Coast.

France, Ireland, Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina assured themselves second-place finishes and will try to earn berths in next month's European playoffs. Eight of the nine second-place finishers in Europe advance to the playoffs.

Later Saturday, the United States was at Honduras and would clinch its sixth consecutive berth with a victory.

Argentina, coached by much-criticized Diego Maradona, got an injury-time goal to defeat visiting Peru 2-1 and climbed among the top four nations of South American qualifying, who get automatic berths.

Eighteen of the 32 nations for next year's tournament have been set. Going into the weekend, Australia, Brazil, England, Ghana, Japan, the Netherlands, North Korea, Paraguay, South Korea and Spain had earned spots along with host South Africa, which gets an automatic berth.

At Mexico City, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Francisco Palencia and Carlos Vega scored for El Tri after Marvin Gonzalez's own goal had given the hosts the lead. Mexico (6-3) leads North and Central America and the Caribbean with 18 points, two ahead of the United States (5-2-1), five in front of Honduras (4-3-1) and six ahead of Costa Rica (4-4). The top three nations qualify and No. 4 goes to a playoff.

At Dublin, reserve forward Alberto Gilardino scored in the 90th minute as Italy tied Ireland 2-2. The Azzurri (6-0-3) won Group Eight with 21 points, and Ireland (4-0-5) is four points back with one game to go.

At Moscow, Miroslav Klose scored his 50th international goal from six yards in the 35th minute to give three-time champion Germany a 1-0 win over Russia.

Germany finished the game a man short after defender Jerome Boateng received his second yellow card of the match in the 68th minute. The Germans (8-0-1) will finish first in Group Four, taking a four-point lead over second-place Russia (7-2) with one match remaining.

At Copenhagen, Jakob Poulsen scored in the 79th minute to give Denmark a 1-0 win over Sweden. Denmark (5-0-3), whose previous World Cup appearances were in 1986, 1998 and 2002, reached its first major tournament since the 2004 European Championship.

At Lisbon, Portugal (4-1-4) moved into second with 16 points, one ahead of Sweden (4-2-3), with a 3-0 victory over Hungary (4-4-1). Simao Sabrosa scored twice and Liedson added another as Portugal won at home for the first time in almost two years. World player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo came out in the first half because of an injury.

At Belgrade, Milan Jovanovic scored twice and Nikola Zigic, Marko Pantelic and Zdravko Kuzmanovic had one goal each for Serbia in a 5-0 rout of Romania. The Romanians finished a man short after defender Cristian Chivu was ejected in the 84th minute for elbowing Zigtic.

Serbia (7-1-1) won Group Seven with 22 points, four ahead of France (5-1-3). Les Bleus beat the visiting Faeroe Islands 5-0 at Guingamp as Andre-Pierre Gignac scored twice and William Gallas, Nicolas Anelka and Karim Benzema added goals.