Uefa 1986 Fifa World Cup Qualification

For an overview of the qualification rounds, see the article 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification.

UEFA was allocated thirteen qualifying berths for the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and one place in a play-off, however Italy were the defending champions and qualified automatically, leaving 12.5 spots open for competition between 32 teams.

Europe's automatic qualifying berths were taken by Poland, West Germany, Portugal, England, Northern Ireland, France, Bulgaria, Hungary, Denmark, Soviet Union and Spain. Belgium and Scotland qualified through the UEFA play-off and UEFA–OFC intercontinental play-off respectively.

The 32 teams were divided into 7 groups. The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The number of teams and spots for each group were as follows:

• Groups 2, 3, 4 and 6 had 5 teams each. The group winners and runners-up would qualify.
• Groups 1, 5 and 7 had 4 teams each. The group winners would qualify. The runners-up of Groups 1 and 5 would advance to the UEFA Play-offs, while the runner-up of Group 7 would advance to the UEFA / OFC Intercontinental Play-off. In the play-offs, the 2 teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis, with the winner qualifying.

The draw for the qualifying groups took place in Zürich, Switzerland on 7 December 1983. During the draw teams were drawn from the 5 pots into the 7 groups. The seedings below were announced ten days before the draw.

Summary

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6	Group 7
Poland	West Germany	England	France	Hungary	Denmark	Spain
Belgium	Portugal	Northern Ireland	Bulgaria	Netherlands	Soviet Union	Scotland
Albania   Greece	Sweden   Czechoslovakia   Malta	Romania   Finland   Turkey	East Germany   Yugoslavia   Luxembourg	Austria   Cyprus	Switzerland   Republic of Ireland   Norway	Wales   Iceland

Group 1

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Poland	6	3	2	1	10	6	+4	8	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	0–0	2–2	3–1
2	Belgium	6	3	2	1	7	3	+4	8	Advance to UEFA play-off		2–0	—	3–1	2–0
3	Albania	6	1	2	3	6	9	−3	4			0–1	2–0	—	1–1
4	Greece	6	1	2	3	5	10	−5	4			1–4	0–0	2–0	—

Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	West Germany	8	5	2	1	22	9	+13	12	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	0–1	2–0	2–2	6–0
2	Portugal	8	5	0	3	12	10	+2	10			1–2	—	1–3	2–1	3–2
3	Sweden	8	4	1	3	14	9	+5	9			2–2	0–1	—	2–0	4–0
4	Czechoslovakia	8	3	2	3	11	12	−1	8			1–5	1–0	2–1	—	4–0
5	Malta	8	0	1	7	6	25	−19	1			2–3	1–3	1–2	0–0	—

Group 3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	8	4	4	0	21	2	+19	12	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	0–0	1–1	5–0	5–0
2	Northern Ireland	8	4	2	2	8	5	+3	10			0–1	—	3–2	2–1	2–0
3	Romania	8	3	3	2	12	7	+5	9			0–0	0–1	—	2–0	3–0
4	Finland	8	3	2	3	7	12	−5	8			1–1	1–0	1–1	—	1–0
5	Turkey	8	0	1	7	2	24	−22	1			0–8	0–0	1–3	1–2	—

Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	8	5	1	2	15	4	+11	11	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	2–0	2–0	6–0
2	Bulgaria	8	5	1	2	13	5	+8	11			2–0	—	1–0	2–1	4–0
3	East Germany	8	5	0	3	16	9	+7	10			2–0	2–1	—	2–3	3–1
4	Yugoslavia	8	3	2	3	7	8	−1	8			0–0	0–0	1–2	—	1–0
5	Luxembourg	8	0	0	8	2	27	−25	0			0–4	1–3	0–5	0–1	—

Group 5

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Hungary	6	5	0	1	12	4	+8	10	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	0–1	3–1	2–0
2	Netherlands	6	3	1	2	11	5	+6	7	Advance to UEFA play-off		1–2	—	1–1	7–1
3	Austria	6	3	1	2	9	8	+1	7			0–3	1–0	—	4–0
4	Cyprus	6	0	0	6	3	18	−15	0			1–2	0–1	1–2	—

Group 6

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	8	5	1	2	17	6	+11	11	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	4–2	0–0	3–0	1–0
2	Soviet Union	8	4	2	2	13	8	+5	10			1–0	—	4–0	2–0	1–0
3	Switzerland	8	2	4	2	5	10	−5	8			1–0	2–2	—	0–0	1–1
4	Republic of Ireland	8	2	2	4	5	10	−5	6			1–4	1–0	3–0	—	0–0
5	Norway	8	1	3	4	4	10	−6	5			1–5	1–1	0–1	1–0	—

Group 7

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	6	4	0	2	9	8	+1	8	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	3–0	2–1
2	Scotland	6	3	1	2	8	4	+4	7	Advance to UEFA–OFC play-off		3–1	—	0–1	3–0
3	Wales	6	3	1	2	7	6	+1	7			3–0	1–1	—	2–1
4	Iceland	6	1	0	5	4	10	−6	2			1–2	0–1	1–0	—

16 October 1985

Belgium	1–0	Netherlands
Vercauteren   20'	Report

Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Brussels, Belgium

Attendance: 30,764

Referee: Pietro D'Elia (Italy)

20 November 1985

Netherlands	2–1	Belgium
Houtman   60' De Wit   72'	Report	Grün   85'

De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Attendance: 48,962

Referee: George Courtney (England)

2–2 on aggregate; Belgium won on away goals.

8 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal