England and Scotland suffered potentially fatal blows to their UEFA EURO 2008 campaigns on Wednesday as holders Greece, the Czech Republic and Romania ensured their presence in next year's finals.

And in France Thierry Henry entered the record books as his country's most prolific goal scorer as the Barcelona star's double guided Les Bleus to a 2-0 win over Lithuania.

That victory lifted the French to the top of Group B, ahead of Scotland and Italy, with the FIFA World Cup winners enjoying a game in hand.

The Scots arrived in Tbilisi topping the standings after Saturday's dashing 3-1 home win over Ukraine but Alex McLeish's men were brought back to earth with a painful bump by a 2-0 defeat to Georgia.

Scotland now have the unenviable job of having to win their final Group B match against Italy on November 17 to ensure their presence in their first major tournament since the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

At least they can take refuge from the fact that their fate is still in their own hands, unlike their hapless neighbours across the border.

England's 2-1 defeat to Russia means they will lose out qualifying for a major international championship for the first time since the 1994 FIFA World Cup if Russia bag maximum points from their remaining qualifiers against Israel and Andorra.

The plastic pitch at the Luzhniki Stadium failed to prove England's flexible friend although everything looked to be going to plan after Wayne Rooney put Steve McLaren's side into a 29th minute lead.

But the Manchester United striker was then turned unwittingly from hero to villain when Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo ruled that his tug on Konstantin Zyrianov was inside the area.

Many in the ground thought it was a harsh decision, but substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko stepped up to convert the 69th minute penalty.

Three minutes later Russia snatched the winner, with Pavyuchenko tapping in a rebound past Paul Robinson.

McLaren was not a happy man after the game. "I've just seen the penalty again and...it was outside the box," he said. "It was a mad four minutes after that when unfortunately we conceded a second but I can't fault the players."

"We knew we would have to defend coming here and we did that," the coach added. "We ended up losing a game that after 70 minutes I never thought we would lose."

Russia coach Guus Hiddink suggested England were undone by their overconfidence.

"England thought at half-time that they were leading so even a draw would be a good result. But you must finish the job before you get what you want. That's what we did," said the Dutchman.

Over in Tbilisi goals from 17-year-old Levan Mchedlidze, who is at Italian Serie A side Empoli, and David Siradze in either half handed hosts Georgia a deserved victory.

Scots feel Georgia heat
McLeish conceded Scotland's performance had been missing sparkle. "It just wasn't our night," he admitted. "The big decisions didn't go our way and we lacked that little bit of quality that has served us so well throughout the campaign."

Greece, who came from the shadows to steal the spotlight at UEFA EURO 2004, ensured they would be defending their title next year with a 1-0 Group C win over Turkey in Istanbul.

Greece join Germany, who became the first side to seal qualification on Saturday although they were embarrassed 3-0 by the Czech Republic, for whom victory ensured their presence in Austria and Switzerland.

Germany coach Joachim Loew shrugged: "It was a bad game. We missed the force that we've had over the past few months. It's a day to forget."

Romania became the fourth team to qualify courtesy of their 2-0 win at Luxembourg.

Elsewhere Portugal, hosts of the 2004 EURO and beaten finalists, moved into second in Group A thanks to Rooney's Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo producing the injury time decider in their 2-1 success over Kazakhstan.