Pick of the Week of Football

There have been more than 150 UEFA EURO 2016 qualifiers played so far and you can watch highlights of them all: or see the pick of this week's games in the video players below.

Teams: Austria, Czech Republic, England, Iceland,
There will be 52 qualifiers played in October but for the four teams above, they are merely the start of preparations for France in June. England were the first to qualify on Saturday, emulated the following night by the Czech Republic and, for a debut in a men's senior final tournament, Iceland, who only drew with Kazakhstan but three nights earlier had won in the Netherlands.

Last night, Austria were the fourth side to book their place alongside hosts France in the finals thanks to a superb 4-1 victory in Sweden. Like England, Austria have already clinched their group. "It's a dream come true for all of us," David Alaba told UEFA.com.

Player: Wayne Rooney (England)
Sir Bobby Charlton's England record of 49 goals, held since the end of his international career in 1970, has proved beyond the likes of Gary Lineker and Michael Owen (and even, from the women's team, Kelly Smith – though futsal's Luke Ballinger did reach his half-century this year). But Rooney had been nearing the mark and on Saturday in the qualification-sealing defeat of San Marino he got his 49th goal on his 106th England appearance, coincentally the tally on which his Manchester United predecessor Charlton retired.

Rooney was not level with Sir Bobby for long. Like on Saturday, he converted a penalty in Tuesday's 2-0 Wembley success over Switzerland to become the first England player to notch 50 senior goals. "It's been a bit annoying over the last few games really," Rooney told UEFA.com. "I am happy now it's out of the way and I can focus on the football again. "

Goal (qualifier): İlkay Gündoğan (Germany)
Scotland proved a tough nut for Germany to crack on Monday, what with the world champions twice having leads cancelled out in Glasgow before half-time. But early in the second half the scorer of both of Germany's opening goals, Thomas Müller, was sent clear by Emre Can and the Bayern München man produced a stunning passing exchange with Gündoğan, who then shot in to secure a 3-2 triumph and leave his side within sight of the finals.

Goal (friendly): Blaise Matuidi (France)
As finals hosts, France have been excused qualifying, instead playing a series of friendlies against teams from the five-nation Group I. The latest outing was against Serbia in Bordeaux on Monday and Matuidi registered twice in a 2-1 victory, his second being a volley hit from 25 metres with such power that it was still rising when it entered the goal and probably would still be, had it not been for the net.

Number: 31
The number of sides, not counting the countries already through, who will go into the last set of qualifiers from 8–13 October still competing for the 19 remaining automatic berths in France and the eight play-off spots. This contingent includes debut UEFA EURO finals chasing Albania, Northern Ireland, Wales, Montenegro, Lithuania, Estonia, Cyprus, Israel, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Precaution: Luxembourg
Luxembourg travelled to Belarus for Tuesday's qualifier hoping to move up to fourth place in Group C but, as coach Luc Holtz revealed, they had a problem when they arrived in Borisov – only alleviated somewhat because they had brought a spare medic with them. "Sixteen of my 20 players have food poisoning," Holtz said. "Some of the coaching staff also have similar problems. Luckily we brought two doctors to Belarus as one of them was out for the whole of Monday with food poisoning. The players felt sick all night and started to turn to the doctors at 4am." They may not have felt much better after a 2-0 loss.

Beard to be feared: Jo Inge Berget
On the whole, it has been an acceptable few weeks for hirsute forward Berget. His goals helped Malmö pip his previous club Celtic to the UEFA Champions League group stage and he then donned his Norway shirt for the first time in this qualifying campaign for a spell of four days in which they won 1-0 in Bulgaria and beat Croatia 2-0 to go second in Group H. This guaranteed at least a play-off berth, which had not seemed likely after the 5-1 loss in Zagreb and 0-0 home draw with Azerbaijan earlier this year.

Berget's key contribution came against Croatia in Oslo, with a brilliant drag-back confusing Darijo Srna before an emphatic finish for the opener; his later strike was deflected in off Vedran Ćorluka to rubber-stamp victory. Of the opener, Berget said: "He was there blocking my path so I pretty much had to do it."

Quote: "When I started playing football, I never even dreamed this could happen." 
Aron Gunnarsson, the Iceland captain, after they wrapped up qualification.

Photo: Take our word for it, somewhere under there is Miguel Veloso after his priceless added-time winner for Portugal in Albania.

©AFP/Getty Images

Next time:
So it comes down to this: by around 22.45CET on 13 October we will know the 19 automatic qualifiers who have joined France in the finals and the eight teams who will enter the play-off draw at 11.00CET on 18 October.

Highlights
Thursday 8 October: 20.45CET – Republic of Ireland v Germany, Northern Ireland v Greece, Portugal v Denmark
Friday 9 October: 20.45CET – Liechtenstein v Sweden, Moldova v Russia, Spain v Luxembourg
Saturday 10 October: 18.00CET – Kazakhstan v Netherlands, Azerbaijan v Italy; 20.45CET – Croatia v Bulgaria, Czech Republic v Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina v Wales
Sunday 11 October: 18.00CET – Finland v Northern Ireland, Armenia v Albania, Serbia v Portugal; 20.45CET – Ukraine v Spain
Monday 12 October: 18.00CET – Russia v Montenegro, Sweden v Moldova; 20.45CET – Albania v Portugal, Scotland v Germany, Northern Ireland v Hungary
Tuesday 13 October: 20.45CET – Netherlands v Czech Republic, Turkey v Iceland, Belgium v Israel, Italy v Norway