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; 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

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 Template:Country data FRY 80	Pot 5 Team Rank Albania 87 Belarus 88 Malta 89 REDIRECT Template:Country data North Macedonia || align=center| 90 Luxembourg 98 Template:Country data MLD 107 Armenia 112 Faroe Islands 116 Estonia 126 Azerbaijan 136 San Marino 142 Liechtenstein 151 Bosnia and Herzegovina NR

Summary

  Winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified directly for the 1998 FIFA World Cup

  The remaining 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
File:Flag of Denmark.svg Denmark	File:Flag of England.svg England	File:Flag of Norway.svg Norway	File:Flag of Austria.svg Austria	File:Flag of Bulgaria.svg Bulgaria	File:Flag of Spain.svg Spain	File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands	File:Flag of Romania.svg Romania	File:Flag of Germany.svg Germany
File:Flag of Croatia.svg Croatia	File:Flag of Italy.svg Italy	File:Flag of Hungary.svg Hungary	File:Flag of Scotland.svg Scotland	File:Flag of Russia.svg Russia	Template:Country data FRY	File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgium	File:Flag of Ireland.svg Republic of Ireland	File:Flag of Ukraine.svg Ukraine
File:Flag of Greece.svg Greece File:Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1998).svg Bosnia and Herzegovina File:Flag of Slovenia.svg Slovenia	File:Flag of Poland.svg Poland File:Flag of Georgia (1990–2004).svg Georgia File:Flag of Moldova (1990–2010).svg Moldova	File:Flag of Finland.svg Finland File:Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Switzerland File:Flag of Azerbaijan.svg Azerbaijan	File:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden File:Flag of Latvia.svg Latvia File:Flag of Estonia.svg Estonia File:Flag of Belarus (1995–2012).svg Belarus	File:Flag of Israel.svg Israel File:Flag of Cyprus (1960–2006).svg Cyprus File:Flag of Luxembourg.svg Luxembourg	File:Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Czech Republic File:Flag of Slovakia.svg Slovakia File:Flag of the Faroe Islands.svg Faroe Islands File:Flag of Malta.svg Malta	File:Flag of Turkey.svg Turkey File:Flag of Wales (1959–present).svg Wales File:Flag of San Marino (1862–2011).svg San Marino	File:Flag of Lithuania (1988-2004).svg Lithuania REDIRECT Template:Country data North Macedonia File:Flag of Iceland.svg Iceland File:Flag of Liechtenstein.svg Liechtenstein	File:Flag of Portugal.svg Portugal File:Flag of Armenia.svg Armenia File:Ulster Banner.svg Northern Ireland File:Flag of Albania (1992–2002).svg Albania

Group 1

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 1

Group 2

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 2

Group 3

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 3

Group 4

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 4

Group 5

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 5

Group 6

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 6

Group 7

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 7

Group 8

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 8

Group 9

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 9

Ranking of second-placed teams

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.

Second round

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	Template:Country data FRY	1–7	0–5

Qualified teams

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

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
France		Template:Dts	9 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1954, 1958, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986)
Denmark		Template:Dts	1 (1986)
England		Template:Dts	9 (1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990)
Norway		Template:Dts	2 (1938, 1994)
Austria		Template:Dts	6 (1934, 1954, 1958, 1978, 1982, 1990)
Bulgaria		Template:Dts	6 (1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1986, 1994)
Spain		Template:Dts	9 (1934, 1950, 1962, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994)
Netherlands		Template:Dts	6 (1934, 1938, 1974, 1978, 1990, 1994)
Romania		Template:Dts	6 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1970, 1990, 1994)
Germany		Template:Dts	13 (1934, 1938, 19542, 19582, 19622, 19662, 19702, 19742, 19782, 19822, 19862, 19902, 1994)
Scotland		Template:Dts	7 (1954, 1958, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990)
Croatia		Template:Dts	0 (debut)
Italy		Template:Dts	13 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994)
Belgium		Template:Dts	9 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1954, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994)
Template:Country data FRY		Template:Dts	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.

Top goalscorers

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

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3
• Group 4
• Group 5
• Group 6
• Group 7
• Group 8
• Group 9
• Play-offs

Notes

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

External links

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