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

Key:

• Teams highlighted in green qualified for the finals.
• Teams highlighted in blue qualified for the Play-offs.

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

Group 2

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

Group 3

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

Group 4

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

Group 5

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

Group 6

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

Group 7

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

Group 8

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

Group 9

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

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

First leg

Croatia  v  Ukraine

29 October 1997 18:00 UTC+2

Croatia	2–0	Ukraine
Bilić  11' Vlaović  49'	(Report)

Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb Attendance: 28,000 Referee: Alain Sars (France)

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Russia  v  Italy

29 October 1997 20:30 UTC+3

Russia	1–1	Italy
Cannavaro  52' (o.g.)	(Report)	Vieri  49'

Dynamo Stadium, Moscow Attendance: 15,000 Referee: Peter Mikkelsen (Denmark)

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Republic of Ireland  v  Belgium

29 October 1997 19:30 UTC

Republic of Ireland	1–1	Belgium
Irwin  7'	(Report)	Nilis  29'

Lansdowne Road, Dublin Attendance: 32,305 Referee: László Vagner (Hungary)

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Hungary  v  Yugoslavia

29 October 1997 20:00 UTC+2

Hungary	1–7	Yugoslavia
Illés  88'	(Report)	Brnović  2' Đukić  6' Savićević  10' Mijatović  26', 41', 51' Milošević  63'

Stadion Albert Flórián, Budapest Attendance: 13,175 Referee: Vítor Melo Pereira (Portugal)

Second leg

Ukraine  v  Croatia

15th November 1997 19:00 UTC+2

Ukraine	1–1	Croatia
Shevchenko  5'	Report	Bokšić  27'

Olimpiysky, Kiev Attendance: 77,500 Referee: Rune Pedersen (Norway)

Croatia won 3–1 on aggregate.

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Italy  v  Russia

15th November 1997 20:45 UTC+1

Italy	1–0	Russia
Casiraghi  53'	(Report)

Stadio San Paolo, Naples Attendance: 69,207 Referee: Serge Muhmenthaler (Switzerland)

Italy won 2–1 on aggregate.

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Belgium  v  Republic of Ireland

15th November 1997 20:00 UTC+1

Belgium	2–1	Republic of Ireland
Oliveira  25' Nilis  70'	(Report)	Houghton  58'

King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels Attendance: 35,320 Referee: Günter Benkö (Austria)

Belgium won 3–2 on aggregate.

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Yugoslavia  v  Hungary

15th November 1997 17:00 UTC+1

Yugoslavia	5–0	Hungary
Milošević  18' Mijatović  44', 45' (pen.), 71', 88'	(Report)

Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Belgrade Attendance: 48,498 Referee: Metin Tokat (Turkey)

Yugoslavia won 12–1 on aggregate.

References

External links

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