There were mixed fortunes for Bluebirds Under 21 Internationals during the Championship break, what with England and Wales confirming their progression to the Uefa European U21 Championship Play-offs as group winners and Scotland narrowly missing out.

Cardiff City were represented in all three camps, starting with 'keeper Tom Heaton with the English squad as an unused sub in their win over Portugal last Friday - the result ensuring their place in the hat this coming Friday as group three winners.

A light Wales U21 squad, missing key faces including Joe Ledley, Chris Gunter, Gareth Bale and Ched Evans put the disappointment of the single goal home loss to Romania by travelling to the largest of the Balkan countries to record an impressive 3-0 win on Tuesday night. The victory was marred for Cardiff as Darcy Blake had to leave the field with a face injury in the first half, but the points secured confirmed their status as group ten winners and hopefully left Blake and sub Jon Brown with something to smile about.

Scotland U21s, including Ross McCormack were in a similar 'win at all costs' predicament to Wales on Tuesday. Their trip to Denmark however ended any hopes of making the play-offs as even though McCormack had efforts deflected wide for the visitors, the Danes took the winning goal after 28 minutes. The irony continued as McCormack was denied the best chance by former loan Bluebird Kasper Schmeichel.

Ten group winners: Italy, Turkey. England, Spain, Switzerland, Finland, Austria, Serbia, Germany, Wales.

Four best runners-up: Belarus, Israel, France, Denmark.

With two UK teams in the mix, the play-offs will be played on the 10th/11th October and 14th/15th October on a home-and-away basis.

The play-off draw will take place at the HSB Turning Torso Meetings skyscraper in Malmo, Sweden, from 11am on Thursday September 12th. The victors from each two-legged tie will join hosts Sweden in the competition proper from 15th to 29th June 2009.