On Wednesday Spain could join the growing list of countries to have secured a place at the 2010 World Cup finals. A victory for Fernando Torres and his teammates against Estonia in Merida, kick-off at 22:00 hours (local time), could see Spain join eight other countries in next summer’s tournament.

With the hosts South Africa already qualified, this weekend saw Ghana beat Sudan 2-0 to become the first African side to reach the 2010 World Cup from the qualifiers. Also on Saturday, Brazil beat their South American rivals Argentina 3-1 in Rosario to secure their place. South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Australia, and Holland make up the rest of the teams who are assured of a place at the 2010 World Cup.

Despite winning all seven of their Group Five matches, including a 5-0 thrashing of Belgium at the weekend, Bosnia’s victory against Armenia meant that Spain have yet to seal qualification.
The European champions are six points ahead of second-placed Bosnia with just three matches remaining (at home to Estonia, and away to Armenia and Bosnia).

Estonia, who are second bottom in Group 5, have had a poor World Cup qualifying campaign and are out of the hunt for a top two finish. The Estonians have only picked up one point on their travels and arrive on the back of a 4-2 defeat at Turkey.

Spain beat Estonia 3-0 in Tallin in the corresponding fixture. Fernando Torres won his team the penalty from which Villa scored his country’s second. The striker also played a key part in Spain’s second as Puyol headed the ball into an empty net after Torres’ effort had struck the bar.

The match will be the 25 year old forward’s 70th for his country. Torres’ caps for the national team currently place him fourth in the table of Spain’s current crop of players. Only Iker Casillas, Puyol and Xavi have represented Spain on more occasions than the forward.

The Spaniard, who has worked under three national team managers (Iñaki Sáez, Luis Aragonés and Vicente del Bosque) has hit 23 goals in 69 games. Goal number 24 for the Liverpool and Spain number ‘9’ against Estonia would take Fernando past both legendary Spain players Julio Salinas and Alfedo Di Stefano.