Greece qualified for a second successive World Cup after another Kostas Mitroglou goal secured a 1-1 draw with Romania in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday and a 4-2 victory on aggregate.
Mitroglou, who scored twice in Greece’s 3-1 first-leg win on Friday, beat the offside trap midway through the first half and gave keeper Ciprian Tatarusanu no chance with his 22nd goal in all competitions this season.
Romania equalised 10 minutes after the break when Vasilis Torosidis struck the ball past his own goalkeeper, Orestis Karnezis, from the edge of the area for an astonishing own goal.
Greece, the 2004 European champions, competed in the previous World Cup finals, in South Africa in 2010, as well as the 1994 tournament in the United States, but they have failed to get past the first round, losing five of their six matches.
Meanwhile, a sublime second-half hat-trick by Cristiano Ronaldo took Portugal through with a 4-2 aggregate victory against Sweden.
In a tie billed as a monumental battle between the Portuguese captain and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Swede scored twice but the imperious Ronaldo lifted his side to a 3-2 win in the second leg.
With Portugal leading 1-0 from the first leg in Lisbon, the Swedes dominated first-half possession but created little before Ronaldo tore them apart in the second half, getting in behind the defence three times to score.
Ibrahimovic gave his side hope at 1-0 down when he levelled from a corner and then blasted home a free kick, but two goals in three minutes from Ronaldo put the game out of reach and ended Swedish hopes of reaching the finals in Brazil.
Elsewhere, France came back from the brink to overpower Ukraine 3-0 in a thrilling playoff return match with a 3-2 aggregate victory.
Oleg Gusev put through his own net in the 72nd minute after Mamadou Sakho had put Les Bleus ahead with his first international goal in the 22nd and Karim Benzema was on target 12 minutes later.
Ukraine, who won the first leg in Kiev 2-0 on Friday, were reduced to 10 men when Yevhen Khacheridi was sent off for a second bookable offence two minutes into the second half.
Croatia also reached the finals after goals from striker Mario Mandzukic and captain Darijo Srna secured a 2-0 aggregate win over Iceland following an action-packed return leg of their playoff on Tuesday.
Mandzukic opened the scoring with a clinical goal in the 27th minute but was sent off for a vicious foul on Johann Gudmundsson shortly before halftime, raising concerns that Croatia might fail to qualify for next year’s tournament after missing out on the 2010 World Cup.
But the home side were unfazed by being a man down and Srna added the second goal straight after the break, rifling in a stinging low shot from 15 metres as he cut in on the right flank after a darting run and pinpoint delivery by midfielder Mateo Kovacic.
Kovacic missed a clearcut chance when Iceland keeper Hannes Halldorsson turned his low shot around the post and Ivica Olic crashed a spectacular overhead kick against the crossbar as Croatia hit top gear to end Iceland’s hopes of qualifying for their first major tournament.
