Blackburn Rovers trio Brett Emerton, Lucas Neill and Morten Gamst Pedersen still have it all to do if they are to fulfil their dreams of appearing at next summer's World Cup finals.

Neill and Emerton were part of the Australian side that lost 1-0 to Uruguay in the first leg of their World Cup play-off in Montevideo on Saturday evening.

Dario Rodriquez scored the all-important goal in the 35th minute at the Estadio Centenario and Uruguay might have extended their lead but for the heroics of Aussie goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, who pulled off an outstanding second half save to deny Richard Morales.

The two teams will meet again for the second leg in Sydney on Wednesday and though the Uruguians are the favourites to go through, they will remember that Australia led by the same scoreline when they met at the same point four years ago only to miss out on qualifying.

In the meantime, Pedersen and Norway must overturn a similar deficit after they lost 1-0 to the Czech Republic in the first leg of their play-off in Oslo.

Vladimir Smicer, the former Liverpool midfielder now playing in France with Bordeaux, scored the winner after 32 minutes when he headed home a cross from Karel Poborsky, the former Manchester United player, in a match that was short on clear-cut goalscoring opportunities.

The second leg takes place in Prague on Wednesday.