1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Listed below are the dates and results for the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for the European zone (UEFA).

A total of 50 UEFA teams entered the competition. The European zone was allocated 15 places (out of 32) in the final tournament. France, the hosts, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition between 49 teams.

The 49 teams were divided into nine groups, four groups of six teams and five groups of five teams. The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. The runners-up would be ranked according to their records against the 1st, 3rd and 4th-placed team in their groups, and the team with the best record would also qualify. The other runners-up would advance to the UEFA Play-offs.

In the play-offs, the 8 teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would qualify.

Qualification seeding (UEFA)

The draw was made on 12 December 1995, and was based on the November 1995 FIFA World Rankings.

Pool 1	Pool 2	Pool 3
Germany  Spain  Italy  Russia  Norway  Denmark  Netherlands  Sweden  Romania	Bulgaria   Switzerland  Portugal  Czech Republic  England  Republic of Ireland  Scotland  Belgium  Greece	Turkey  Poland  Slovakia  Austria  Croatia  Israel  Finland  Lithuania  Northern Ireland
Pool 4	Pool 5	Pool 6
Iceland  Latvia  Wales  Hungary  Cyprus  Ukraine  Slovenia  Georgia  Yugoslavia	Albania  Belarus  Malta  Macedonia	Luxembourg  Moldova  Armenia  Faroe Islands  Estonia  Azerbaijan  San Marino  Liechtenstein  Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary

  Winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified directly for the 1998 FIFA World Cup

  The Runners-up advanced to the second round (play-offs)

  Other teams were eliminated after the first round

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6	Group 7	Group 8	Group 9
Denmark	England	Norway	Austria	Bulgaria	Spain	Netherlands	Romania	Germany
Croatia	Italy	Hungary	Scotland	Russia	Yugoslavia	Belgium	Republic of Ireland	Ukraine
Greece Bosnia and Herzegovina Slovenia	Poland Georgia Moldova	Finland Switzerland Azerbaijan	Sweden Latvia Estonia Belarus	Israel Cyprus Luxembourg	Czech Republic Slovakia Faroe Islands Malta	Turkey Wales San Marino	Lithuania Macedonia Iceland Liechtenstein	Portugal Armenia Northern Ireland Albania

Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Denmark 8 5 2 1 14 6 +8 17  Croatia 8 4 3 1 17 12 +5 15  Greece 8 4 2 2 11 4 +7 14  Bosnia and Herzegovina 8 3 0 5 9 14 −5 9  Slovenia 8 0 1 7 5 20 −15 1

Bosnia and Herzegovina  – 1–4 3–0 0–1 1–0 Croatia  3–2 – 1–1 1–1 3–3 Denmark  2–0 3–1 – 2–1 4–0 Greece  3–0 0–1 0–0 – 2–0 Slovenia  1–2 1–3 0–2 0–3 –

Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  England 8 6 1 1 15 2 +13 19  Italy 8 5 3 0 11 1 +10 18  Poland 8 3 1 4 10 12 −2 10  Georgia 8 3 1 4 7 9 −2 10  Moldova 8 0 0 8 2 21 −19 0

England  – 2–0 0–1 4–0 2–1 Georgia  0–2 – 0–0 2–0 3–0 Italy  0–0 1–0 – 3–0 3–0 Moldova  0–3 0–1 1–3 – 0–3 Poland  0–2 4–1 0–0 2–1 –

Group 3

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Norway 8 6 2 0 21 2 +19 20  Hungary 8 3 3 2 10 8 +2 12  Finland 8 3 2 3 11 12 −1 11   Switzerland 8 3 1 4 11 12 −1 10  Azerbaijan 8 1 0 7 3 22 −19 3

Azerbaijan  – 1–2 0–3 0–1 1–0 Finland  3–0 – 1–1 0–4 2–3 Hungary  3–1 1–0 – 1–1 1–1 Norway  5–0 1–1 3–0 – 5–0 Switzerland   5–0 1–2 1–0 0–1 –

Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Austria 10 8 1 1 17 4 +13 25  Scotland 10 7 2 1 15 3 +12 23  Sweden 10 7 0 3 16 9 +7 21  Latvia 10 3 1 6 10 14 −4 10  Estonia 10 1 1 8 4 16 −12 4  Belarus 10 1 1 8 5 21 −16 4

Austria  – 4–0 2–0 2–1 0–0 1–0 Belarus  0–1 – 1–0 1–1 0–1 1–2 Estonia  0–3 1–0 – 1–3 0–0 2–3 Latvia  1–3 2–0 1–0 – 0–2 1–2 Scotland  2–0 4–1 2–0 2–0 – 1–0 Sweden  0–1 5–1 1–0 1–0 2–1 –

Group 5

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Bulgaria 8 6 0 2 18 9 +9 18  Russia 8 5 2 1 19 5 +14 17  Israel 8 4 1 3 9 7 +2 13  Cyprus 8 3 1 4 10 15 −5 10  Luxembourg 8 0 0 8 2 22 −20 0

Bulgaria  – 4–1 1–0 4–0 1–0 Cyprus  1–3 – 2–0 2–0 1–1 Israel  2–1 2–0 – 1–0 1–1 Luxembourg  1–2 1–3 0–3 – 0–4 Russia  4–2 4–0 2–0 3–0 –

Group 6

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Spain 10 8 2 0 26 6 +20 26  Yugoslavia 10 7 2 1 29 7 +22 23  Czech Republic 10 5 1 4 16 6 +10 16  Slovakia 10 5 1 4 18 14 +4 16  Faroe Islands 10 2 0 8 10 31 −21 6  Malta 10 0 0 10 2 37 −35 0

Czech Republic  – 2–0 6–0 3–0 0–0 1–2 Faroe Islands  0–2 – 2–1 1–2 2–6 1–8 Malta  0–1 1–2 – 0–2 0–3 0–5 Slovakia  2–1 3–0 6–0 – 1–2 1–1 Spain  1–0 3–1 4–0 4–1 – 2–0 Yugoslavia  1–0 3–1 6–0 2–0 1–1 –

Group 7

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Netherlands 8 6 1 1 26 4 +22 19  Belgium 8 6 0 2 20 11 +9 18  Turkey 8 4 2 2 21 9 +12 14  Wales 8 2 1 5 20 21 −1 7  San Marino 8 0 0 8 0 42 −42 0

Belgium  – 0–3 6–0 2–1 3–2 Netherlands  3–1 – 4–0 0–0 7–1 San Marino  0–3 0–6 – 0–5 0–5 Turkey  1–3 1–0 7–0 – 6–4 Wales  1–2 1–3 6–0 0–0 –

Group 8

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Romania 10 9 1 0 37 4 +33 28  Republic of Ireland 10 5 3 2 22 8 +14 18  Lithuania 10 5 2 3 11 8 +3 17  Macedonia 10 4 1 5 22 18 +4 13  Iceland 10 2 3 5 11 16 −5 9  Liechtenstein 10 0 0 10 3 52 −49 0

Iceland  – 4–0 0–0 1–1 2–4 0–4 Liechtenstein  0–4 – 0–2 1–11 2–6 1–8 Lithuania  2–0 2–1 – 2–0 1–2 0–1 Macedonia  1–0 3–0 1–2 – 3–2 0–3 Republic of Ireland  0–0 5–0 0–0 3–0 – 1–1 Romania  4–0 8–0 3–0 4–2 1–0 –

Group 9

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Germany 10 6 4 0 23 9 +14 22  Ukraine 10 6 2 2 10 6 +4 20  Portugal 10 5 4 1 12 4 +8 19  Armenia 10 1 5 4 8 17 −9 8  Northern Ireland 10 1 4 5 6 10 −4 7  Albania 10 1 1 8 7 20 −13 4

Albania  – 1–1 2–3 1–0 0–3 0–1 Armenia  3–0 – 1–5 0–0 0–0 0–2 Germany  4–3 4–0 – 1–1 1–1 2–0 Northern Ireland  2–0 1–1 1–3 – 0–0 0–1 Portugal  2–0 3–1 0–0 1–0 – 1–0 Ukraine  1–0 1–1 0–0 2–1 2–1 –

Ranking of runners-up

Record against the 1st, 3rd and 4th-placed team in their groups.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Scotland	6	4	1	1	8	2	+6	13
Italy	6	3	3	0	5	0	+5	12
Belgium	6	4	0	2	11	11	0	12
Russia	6	3	2	1	12	5	+7	11
Croatia	6	3	2	1	11	8	+3	11
Yugoslavia	6	3	2	1	7	5	+2	11
Republic of Ireland	6	2	2	2	8	6	+2	8
Ukraine	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8
Hungary	6	1	3	2	4	7	−3	6

Play-offs

Matches

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Croatia	3–1	Ukraine	2–0	1–1
Russia	1–2	Italy	1–1	0–1
Republic of Ireland	2–3	Belgium	1–1	1–2
Hungary	1–12	Yugoslavia	1–7	0–5

References

External links

• UEFA Qualifier results with full game box scores at Scoreshelf.com