Uefa 1998 Fifa World Cup Qualification

A total of 50 UEFA teams entered the competition; Andorra, which joined FIFA and UEFA in November 1996 while the qualifiers were underway, could not enter. 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.

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

Seeding

The teams were divided into five pools as shown in table below (November 1995 rankings shown in brackets).

Pot 1 Team Rank   Germany 2   Spain 3   Italy 4   Russia 5   Norway 6   Denmark 8   Netherlands 10   Sweden 11   Romania 12	Pot 2 Team Rank   Bulgaria 14    Switzerland 15   Portugal 16   Czech Republic 18   England 20   Republic of Ireland 21   Scotland 25   Belgium 26   Greece 29	Pot 3 Team Rank   Turkey 31   Poland 33   Slovakia 35   Austria 38   Croatia 39   Israel 40   Finland 41   Lithuania 45   Northern Ireland 46
Pot 4 Team Rank   Iceland 48   Latvia 54   Wales 57   Hungary 60   Cyprus 70   Ukraine 71   Slovenia 75   Georgia 77   Yugoslavia 80	Pot 5 Team Rank   Albania 87   Belarus 88   Malta 89   Macedonia 90   Luxembourg 98   Moldova 107   Armenia 112   Faroe Islands 116   Estonia 126   Azerbaijan 136   San Marino 142   Liechtenstein 151   Bosnia and Herzegovina NR

Summary

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

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	8	5	2	1	14	6	+8	17	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	3–1	2–1	2–0	4–0
2	Croatia	8	4	3	1	17	12	+5	15	Advance to second round		1–1	—	1–1	3–2	3–3
3	Greece	8	4	2	2	11	4	+7	14			0–0	0–1	—	3–0	2–0
4	Bosnia and Herzegovina	8	3	0	5	9	14	−5	9			3–0	1–4	0–1	—	1–0
5	Slovenia	8	0	1	7	5	20	−15	1			0–2	1–3	0–3	1–2	—

Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	8	6	1	1	15	2	+13	19	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	0–1	2–1	2–0	4–0
2	Italy	8	5	3	0	11	1	+10	18	Advance to second round		0–0	—	3–0	1–0	3–0
3	Poland	8	3	1	4	10	12	−2	10			0–2	0–0	—	4–1	2–1
4	Georgia	8	3	1	4	7	9	−2	10			0–2	0–0	3–0	—	2–0
5	Moldova	8	0	0	8	2	21	−19	0			0–3	1–3	0–3	0–1	—

Group 3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Norway	8	6	2	0	21	2	+19	20	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	3–0	1–1	5–0	5–0
2	Hungary	8	3	3	2	10	8	+2	12	Advance to second round		1–1	—	1–0	1–1	3–1
3	Finland	8	3	2	3	11	12	−1	11			0–4	1–1	—	2–3	3–0
4	Switzerland	8	3	1	4	11	12	−1	10			0–1	1–0	1–2	—	5–0
5	Azerbaijan	8	1	0	7	3	22	−19	3			0–1	0–3	1–2	1–0	—

Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Austria	10	8	1	1	17	4	+13	25	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	0–0	1–0	2–1	2–0	4–0
2	Scotland	10	7	2	1	15	3	+12	23			2–0	—	1–0	2–0	2–0	4–1
3	Sweden	10	7	0	3	16	9	+7	21			0–1	2–1	—	1–0	1–0	5–1
4	Latvia	10	3	1	6	10	14	−4	10			1–3	0–2	1–2	—	1–0	2–0
5	Estonia	10	1	1	8	4	16	−12	4			0–3	0–0	2–3	1–3	—	1–0
6	Belarus	10	1	1	8	5	21	−16	4			0–1	0–1	1–2	1–1	1–0	—

Group 5

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Bulgaria	8	6	0	2	18	9	+9	18	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	1–0	4–1	4–0
2	Russia	8	5	2	1	19	5	+14	17	Advance to second round		4–2	—	2–0	4–0	3–0
3	Israel	8	4	1	3	9	7	+2	13			2–1	1–1	—	2–0	1–0
4	Cyprus	8	3	1	4	10	15	−5	10			1–3	1–1	2–0	—	2–0
5	Luxembourg	8	0	0	8	2	22	−20	0			1–2	0–4	0–3	1–3	—

Group 6

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	10	8	2	0	26	6	+20	26	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	2–0	1–0	4–1	3–1	4–0
2	Yugoslavia	10	7	2	1	29	7	+22	23	Advance to second round		1–1	—	1–0	2–0	3–1	6–0
3	Czech Republic	10	5	1	4	16	6	+10	16			0–0	1–2	—	3–0	2–0	6–0
4	Slovakia	10	5	1	4	18	14	+4	16			1–2	1–1	2–1	—	3–0	6–0
5	Faroe Islands	10	2	0	8	10	31	−21	6			2–6	1–8	0–2	1–2	—	2–1
6	Malta	10	0	0	10	2	37	−35	0			0–3	0–5	0–1	0–2	1–2	—

Group 7

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	8	6	1	1	26	4	+22	19	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	3–1	0–0	7–1	4–0
2	Belgium	8	6	0	2	20	11	+9	18	Advance to second round		0–3	—	2–1	3–2	6–0
3	Turkey	8	4	2	2	21	9	+12	14			1–0	1–3	—	6–4	7–0
4	Wales	8	2	1	5	20	21	−1	7			1–3	1–2	0–0	—	6–0
5	San Marino	8	0	0	8	0	42	−42	0			0–6	0–3	0–5	0–5	—

Group 8

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Romania	10	9	1	0	37	4	+33	28	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	3–0	4–2	4–0	8–0
2	Republic of Ireland	10	5	3	2	22	8	+14	18	Advance to second round		1–1	—	0–0	3–0	0–0	5–0
3	Lithuania	10	5	2	3	11	8	+3	17			0–1	1–2	—	2–0	2–0	2–1
4	Macedonia	10	4	1	5	22	18	+4	13			0–3	3–2	1–2	—	1–0	3–0
5	Iceland	10	2	3	5	11	16	−5	9			0–4	2–4	0–0	1–1	—	4–0
6	Liechtenstein	10	0	0	10	3	52	−49	0			1–8	0–5	0–2	1–11	0–4	—

Group 9

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	10	6	4	0	23	9	+14	22	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	2–0	1–1	4–0	1–1	4–3
2	Ukraine	10	6	2	2	10	6	+4	20	Advance to second round		0–0	—	2–1	1–1	2–1	1–0
3	Portugal	10	5	4	1	12	4	+8	19			0–0	1–0	—	3–1	1–0	2–0
4	Armenia	10	1	5	4	8	17	−9	8			1–5	0–2	0–0	—	0–0	3–0
5	Northern Ireland	10	1	4	5	6	10	−4	7			1–3	0–1	0–0	1–1	—	2–0
6	Albania	10	1	1	8	7	20	−13	4			2–3	0–1	0–3	1–1	1–0	—

Ranking of second-placed teams

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

The following 15 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
France	Hosts	2 July 1992	9 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1954, 1958, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986)
Denmark	Group 1 winners	11 October 1997	1 (1986)
England	Group 2 winners	11 October 1997	9 (1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990)
Norway	Group 3 winners	6 September 1997	2 (1938, 1994)
Austria	Group 4 winners	11 October 1997	6 (1934, 1954, 1958, 1978, 1982, 1990)
Bulgaria	Group 5 winners	10 September 1997	6 (1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1986, 1994)
Spain	Group 6 winners	11 October 1997	9 (1934, 1950, 1962, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994)
Netherlands	Group 7 winners	11 October 1997	6 (1934, 1938, 1974, 1978, 1990, 1994)
Romania	Group 8 winners	18 August 1997	6 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1970, 1990, 1994)
Germany	Group 9 winners	11 October 1997	13 (1934, 1938, 19542, 19582, 19622, 19662, 19702, 19742, 19782, 19822, 19862, 19902, 1994)
Scotland	Best runners-up	11 October 1997	7 (1954, 1958, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990)
Croatia	Play-off winners	15 November 1997	0 (debut)
Italy	Play-off winners	15 November 1997	13 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994)
Belgium	Play-off winners	15 November 1997	9 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1954, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994)
Yugoslavia	Play-off winners	15 November 1997	8 (19303, 19503, 19543, 19583, 19623, 19743, 19823, 19903)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
² Competed as West Germany. A separate team for East Germany also participated in qualifications during this time, having only competed in 1974.
³ Competed as Yugoslavia.

There were 667 goals scored in 228 matches, for an average of 2.93 goals per match.

14 goals

9 goals

8 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

• To date, this was the last time that Portugal failed to qualify for a FIFA World Cup.