Following the completion of the European play-offs last night, all but one of the 32 places at the 2014 World Cup have been taken, with both France and Portugal dramatically booking their places on Tuesday evening. The likes of Karim Benzema, Samir Nasri, Patrice Evra, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Nani were left to sweat over their seats on the flight to Brazil, but all five will be at next summer's tournament. And, with Uruguay still to take on Jamaica in the final qualifier, and commanding a 5-0 lead after the first leg, one would suspect the likes of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani will be joining them. Not that there weren't any fatalities along the way, of course. With the likes of Wales, Sweden, Ukraine, Denmark and Serbia failing to make it out of the group stages, there will be some notable absentees in 2014. And here, WhatCulture! takes a look at 10 stars who didn't make it.
10. Anatoliy Tymoshchuk
Ukraine were unfortunate to be knocked out by France over two legs of their dramatic World Cup play-off last night. After taking a deserved 2-0 lead to the Stade de France, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk's side were beaten 3-0 after suffering a contentious red card and forced to play much of the second half with 10 men. The former Bayern Munich man and Ukraine captain will consider himself unfortunate to miss out on next summer's tournament having twice drawn with England in Group H, and comfortably beating a below-par France side one week prior before going out 3-2 on aggregate.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
