UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying

Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2000 final tournament, took place throughout 1998 and 1999. Forty-nine teams were divided into nine groups. All teams played against each other, within their groups, in a home-and-away basis. The winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified automatically for the final tournament. The rest of the runners-up played an additional set of playoff matches amongst each other.

Belgium and the Netherlands qualified automatically as co-hosts of the event.

Qualification seeding

  Qualified – directly

  Qualified – after Play-offs

  Did not qualify – Play-offs

  Did not qualify – First Round

  Did not enter

  Not a UEFA member

The draw was made on 18 January 1998, in Ghent, Belgium. Germany were seeded first as holders. The other seedings were determined by points per game in the qualifiers for 1996 European Championship and the 1998 World Cup.^[1][2] Other points to note:

• France did not have to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup as hosts. Only their record in UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying was used.
• England did not have to qualify for UEFA Euro 1996 as hosts. Only their record in World Cup 1998 was used.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina had never competed in the European Championships, so only their World Cup record was used.
• FR Yugoslavia were banned from UEFA Euro 1996, so only their World Cup record was used.
• This was the first qualifying competition for Andorra.

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

Summary

  Winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified directly for the UEFA Euro 2000

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

  Other teams were eliminated after the first round

Hosts

•  Belgium
•  Netherlands

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

Groups

Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Italy | 4 | 3 | 1 | 13 | 5 | +8 15  Denmark | 4 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 8 | +3 14   Switzerland | 4 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 5 | +4 14  Wales | 3 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 16 | −9 9  Belarus | 0 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 10 | −6 3

Belarus  – 0–0 0–0 0–1 1–2 Denmark  1–0 – 1–2 2–1 1–2 Italy  1–1 2–3 – 2–0 4–0 Switzerland   2–0 1–1 0–0 – 2–0 Wales  3–2 0–2 0–2 0–2 –

Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Norway | 8 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 9 | +12 25  Slovenia | 5 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 14 | −2 17  Greece | 4 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 8 | +5 15  Latvia | 3 | 4 | 3 | 13 | 12 | +1 13  Albania | 1 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 14 | −6 7  Georgia | 1 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 18 | −10 5

Albania  – 2–1 0–0 3–3 1–2 0–1 Georgia  1–0 – 1–2 2–2 1–4 1–1 Greece  2–0 3–0 – 1–2 0–2 2–2 Latvia  0–0 1–0 0–0 – 1–2 1–2 Norway  2–2 1–0 1–0 1–3 – 4–0 Slovenia  2–0 2–1 0–3 1–0 1–2 –

Group 3

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Germany | 6 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 4 | +16 19  Turkey | 5 | 2 | 1 | 15 | 6 | +9 17  Finland | 3 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 13 | +0 10  Northern Ireland | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 19 | −15 5  Moldova | 0 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 17 | −10 4

Finland  – 1–2 3–2 4–1 2–4 Germany  2–0 – 6–1 4–0 0–0 Moldova  0–0 1–3 – 0–0 1–1 Northern Ireland  1–0 0–3 2–2 – 0–3 Turkey  1–3 1–0 2–0 3–0 –

Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  France | 6 | 3 | 1 | 17 | 10 | +7 21  Ukraine | 5 | 5 | 0 | 14 | 4 | +10 20  Russia | 6 | 1 | 3 | 22 | 12 | +10 19  Iceland | 4 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 7 | +5 15  Armenia | 2 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 15 | −7 8  Andorra | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 28 | −25 0

Andorra  – 0–3 0–1 0–2 1–2 0–2 Armenia  3–1 – 2–3 0–0 0–3 0–0 France  2–0 2–0 – 3–2 2–3 0–0 Iceland  3–0 2–0 1–1 – 1–0 0–1 Russia  6–1 2–0 2–3 1–0 – 1–1 Ukraine  4–0 2–0 0–0 1–1 3–2 –

Group 5

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Sweden | 7 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 1 | +9 22  England | 3 | 4 | 1 | 14 | 4 | +10 13  Poland | 4 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 8 | +4 13  Bulgaria | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | −2 8  Luxembourg | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 23 | −21 0

Bulgaria  – 1–1 3–0 0–3 0–1 England  0–0 – 6–0 3–1 0–0 Luxembourg  0–2 0–3 – 2–3 0–1 Poland  2–0 0–0 3–0 – 0–1 Sweden  1–0 2–1 2–0 2–0 –

Group 6

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Spain | 7 | 0 | 1 | 42 | 5 | +37 21  Israel | 4 | 1 | 3 | 25 | 9 | +16 13  Austria | 4 | 1 | 3 | 19 | 20 | −1 13  Cyprus | 4 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 21 | −9 12  San Marino | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 44 | −43 0

Austria  – 3–1 1–1 7–0 1–3 Cyprus  0–3 – 3–2 4–0 3–2 Israel  5–0 3–0 – 8–0 1–2 San Marino  1–4 0–1 0–5 – 0–6 Spain  9–0 8–0 3–0 9–0 –

Group 7

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Romania | 7 | 3 | 0 | 25 | 3 | +22 24  Portugal | 7 | 2 | 1 | 32 | 4 | +28 23  Slovakia | 5 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 9 | +3 17  Hungary | 3 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 10 | +4 12  Azerbaijan | 1 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 26 | −20 4  Liechtenstein | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 39 | −37 4

Azerbaijan  – 0–4 4–0 1–1 0–1 0–1 Hungary  3–0 – 5–0 1–3 1–1 0–1 Liechtenstein  2–1 0–0 – 0–5 0–3 0–4 Portugal  7–0 3–0 8–0 – 0–1 1–0 Romania  4–0 2–0 7–0 1–1 – 0–0 Slovakia  3–0 0–0 2–0 0–3 1–5 –

Group 8

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Yugoslavia 8 5 2 1 18 8 +10 17  Republic of Ireland 8 5 1 2 14 6 +8 16  Croatia 8 4 3 1 13 9 +4 15  Macedonia 8 2 2 4 13 14 −1 8  Malta 8 0 0 8 6 27 −21 0

Croatia  — 3–2 2–1 1–0 2–2 Macedonia  1–1 — 4–0 1–1 2–4 Malta  1–4 1–2 — 2–3 0–3 Republic of Ireland  2–0 1–0 5–0 — 2–1 Yugoslavia  0–0 3–1 4–1 1–0 —

Group 9

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Czech Republic | 10 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 5 | +21 30  Scotland | 5 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 10 | +5 18  Bosnia and Herzegovina | 3 | 2 | 5 | 14 | 17 | −3 11  Lithuania | 3 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 16 | −8 11  Estonia | 3 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 17 | −2 11  Faroe Islands | 0 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 17 | −13 3

Bosnia and Herzegovina  – 1–3 1–1 1–0 2–0 1–2 Czech Republic  3–0 – 4–1 2–0 2–0 3–2 Estonia  1–4 0–2 – 5–0 1–2 0–0 Faroe Islands  2–2 0–1 0–2 – 0–1 1–1 Lithuania  4–2 0–4 1–2 0–0 – 0–0 Scotland  1–0 1–2 3–2 2–1 3–0 –

Ranking of second-placed teams

The best runner-up of the entire group phase qualified automatically for the final tournament. To determine the best runner-up, a comparison was made between all of them. Only matches played against teams that finished first, third and fourth were regarded. Matches played against fifth and sixth placed teams were discarded, because some groups had more teams than others. After the best runner-up was found, all the others (eight of them) entered a random playoff to determine four more teams to qualify.

Legend
Country that advanced to the final tournament
Countries that advanced to the play-offs

Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
7	Portugal	6	4	1	1	11	3	+8	13
3	Turkey	6	4	1	1	12	5	+7	13
9	Scotland	6	3	1	2	9	6	+3	10
1	Denmark	6	3	1	2	10	8	+2	10
8	Republic of Ireland	6	3	1	2	6	4	+2	10
4	Ukraine	6	2	4	0	6	4	+2	10
6	Israel	6	2	1	3	12	9	+3	7
5	England	6	1	4	1	5	4	+1	7
2	Slovenia	6	2	1	3	6	12	−6	7

Portugal qualified automatically as best runner-up, beating Turkey on goal difference.

Play-offs

The remaining eight runners-up entered a random playoff, disputed in two legs, home and away. Four more teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Scotland	1–2	England	0–2	1–0
Israel	0–8	Denmark	0–5	0–3
Slovenia	3–2	Ukraine	2–1	1–1
Republic of Ireland	1–1 (a)	Turkey	1–1	0–0

Qualified teams

•  Belgium
•  Netherlands
•  Italy
•  Norway
•  Germany
•  France
•  Sweden
•  Spain
•  Romania
•  FR Yugoslavia
•  Czech Republic
•  Portugal
•  England
•  Denmark
•  Slovenia
•  Turkey

Top goalscorers

11 goals

• Raúl

9 goals

• Zlatko Zahovič

8 goals

• João Pinto

References

1. "Football: Andorra and Bosnia join the long march to Euro 2000". independent. 17 January 1998. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
2. "European Championship 2000 Preliminary Competition". englandfootballonline.com. Retrieved 16 August 2014.