But the triumph comes at the end of a campaign which has failed to mask the shortcomings of Rudi Voller’s side.

Since reaching the World Cup final, they have dropped points against Lithuania, Scotland and Iceland while they also laboured to beat the Faroe Islands.

Ballack put Germany ahead in the ninth minute after he was played in by a clever Bobic backheel.

The Bayern Munich midfielder curled the ball into the bottom right-hand corner on the half-volley.

Iceland had their first chance around the quarter-hour mark but Indridi Sigurdsson’s shot was off-target.

But the Germans looked comfortably in charge throughout the first half with the visitors limited to sporadic counter-attacking.

Voller’s outfit continued to dominate in the second half and Bobic all but put the game out of Iceland’s reach 14 minutes after the break when he volleyed in Kuranyi’s cross.

The Stuttgart striker then added salt into Nordic wounds by netting the third goal after getting on the end of a great run by Miroslav Klose.

The win secured, the Germans played out time with the Icelanders, broken-hearted by Scotland’s win, chasing the ball.

Russia came from behind to beat Georgia 3-1, earning a play-off spot and leaving the Republic of Ireland needing a win in Swizterland that eluded them.

Aleksandr Iashvili gave the Georgians a surprise lead after just three minutes in Moscow.

The visitors could not qualify but they did have considerable local pride at stake against their neighbours and former comrades in the Soviet Union,

But Dmitri Bulykin levelled for the home side after 29 minutes and the Russians went in ahead after Egor Titov struck in first-half stoppage time.

A goal from Dmitri Sytchev put the result beyond doubt but was not enough to claim top spot from the Swiss, who advanced as group winners and eliminated the Irish thanks to goals from Hakan Yakin and Alexander Frei.

The Czech Republic’s trip to Austria had little riding on it as they had already won the group with Holland guaranteed second place.

Nevertheless there were still five goals and the sending-off of Markus Schopp in the game won 3-2 by the Czechs thanks to Jan Koller’s goal in stoppage time.

Latvia secured their best ever finish since gaining independence with second place and a play-off berth after a 1-0 win in Stockholm.

Sweden had already done enough to win the group and they lost their first game of the campaign with Maris Verpakovskis netting the only goal of the campaign in the 23rd minute.

The visitors lost Dzintars Zirnis to a red card in the second half but held on to take the win.

The result rendered the meeting between Hungary and Poland, who both harboured play-off ambitions this weekend, meaningless.

For the record Andrzeg Niedzieland scored twice as the Poles won 2-1 in Budapest.

Greece qualified for a major tournament for only the second time in their history, a 1-0 defeat of Northern Ireland enough to win the group and consign Spain to the ignominy of the play-offs.

The Spaniards won 4-0 in Armenia with two goals from Jose Antonio Reyes in three minutes and one each from Raul and Juan Valeron.

Denmark had Everton midfielder Thomas Gravesen sent off in stoppage time and could only draw 1-1 with Bosnia but still won Group Two.

Norway completed a Scandinavian 1-2 ahead of Romania by beating Luxembourg 1-0 with a goal from Tore Andre Flo.