1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Tournament details
Dates	24 April 1996 – 15 November 1997
Teams	49 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	228
Goals scored	667 (2.93 per match)
Attendance	4,794,512 (21,029 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Predrag Mijatović (14 goals)
← 1994 2002 →

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; 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.^[1][2]

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  FR 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

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	FR 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

Pos	Team	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	—

Pos	Team	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	—

Pos	Team	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	—

Pos	Team	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	—

Pos	Team	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	—

Pos	Team	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	FR 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	—

Pos	Team	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	—

Pos	Team	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	—

Pos	Team	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	—

As some groups had six teams and others had five, the matches vs the fifth and sixth place teams were discarded for the purposes of the ranking, though discarding results against the sixth placed team would have been sufficient.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	4	Scotland	6	4	1	1	8	2	+6	13	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup
2	2	Italy	6	3	3	0	5	0	+5	12	Advance to second round (play-offs)
3	7	Belgium	6	4	0	2	11	11	0	12
4	5	Russia	6	3	2	1	12	5	+7	11
5	1	Croatia	6	3	2	1	11	8	+3	11
6	6	FR Yugoslavia	6	3	2	1	7	5	+2	11
7	8	Republic of Ireland	6	2	2	2	8	6	+2	8
8	9	Ukraine	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8
9	3	Hungary	6	1	3	2	4	7	−3	6

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	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	FR Yugoslavia	1–7	0–5

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)
FR 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

Below are full goalscorer lists for all groups and the play-offs:

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

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