# 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Listed below are the dates and results for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for UEFA teams. A total of 51 teams took part, divided in 8 groups – five groups of six teams each and three groups of seven teams each – competing for 13 places in the World Cup. Germany, the hosts, were already qualified, for a total of 14 European places in the tournament. The qualifying process started on 18 August 2004, over a month after the end of UEFA Euro 2004, and ended on 16 November 2005. Kazakhstan, which transitioned from the Asian Football Confederation to UEFA after the end of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, debuted in the European qualifiers.
The teams in each group would play against each other in a home and away basis. The team with the most points in each group qualified to the World Cup. The runners up are ranked. For fairness rules, results against the seventh placed team were ignored, in groups of seven teams. The two best ranked runners-up also qualified to the World Cup. The other six runners-up were drawn into three two-legged knock out matches, the playoff winners also qualifying.
The race to join hosts Germany at the 2006 FIFA World Cup featured an unlikely winner in Europe, where Ukraine became the first team to qualify, having finished above Turkey, Denmark and Greece in arguably the continent's toughest qualifying group.
France had its first successful World Cup qualifying campaign in twenty years as they had missed the 1990 and 1994 tournaments, then qualified automatically as hosts in 1998 and as defending champions in 2002.
Serbia and Montenegro and Croatia also advanced to Germany at the head of their sections, the former forcing Spain into the playoffs in the process. Besides the eight group winners, two teams progressed automatically as best runners up, namely Poland and Sweden while the playoffs offered a second chance to six others.

## Qualification seeding (UEFA)

The draw was made on 5 December 2003 in Frankfurt, Germany. Germany qualified automatically as hosts. The other seedings were determined by points per game in the qualifiers for 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification and UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying. France qualified automatically for the 2002 FIFA World Cup as title holders, so only their record in UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying was used. Portugal qualified automatically for UEFA Euro 2004 as hosts, so only their record in World Cup 2002 was used. Kazakhstan were not ranked by this system as they did not participate in either competition.
For domestic clubs involved in international club competitions reasons, England, France, Italy and Spain were drawn into groups of 6 teams.
Pot A :
| Pot A TeamCoeffRank  France3.001  Portugal2.402  Sweden2.393  Czech Republic2.314  Spain2.315  Italy2.316  England2.317  Turkey2.228 | Pot B TeamCoeffRank  Netherlands2.179  Croatia2.1210  Belgium2.0611  Denmark2.0512  Russia2.0513  Republic of Ireland1.9414  Slovenia1.8915  Poland1.8916 | Pot C TeamCoeffRank  Bulgaria1.8917  Romania1.8718  Scotland1.8119  Serbia and Montenegro1.7220  Switzerland1.6121  Greece1.5622  Slovakia1.5023  Austria1.5024 |
| Pot D TeamCoeffRank  Ukraine1.5025  Iceland1.4426  Finland1.3727  Norway1.3328  Israel1.3129  Bosnia and Herzegovina1.3130  Latvia1.2531  Wales1.2232 | Pot E TeamCoeffRank  Hungary1.1933  Georgia1.0634  Belarus1.0035  Cyprus0.8936  Estonia0.8937  Northern Ireland0.7838  Lithuania0.7539  Macedonia0.7540 | Pot F TeamCoeffRank  Albania0.6941  Armenia0.6742  Moldova0.6743  Azerbaijan0.5044  Faroe Islands0.4445  Malta0.1146  San Marino0.0647  Liechtenstein0.0648 |
| Pot G TeamCoeffRank  Andorra0.0049  Luxembourg0.0050  Kazakhstan0.0051 |

## First round
### Summary

| Group 1 | Group 2 | Group 3 | Group 4 | Group 5 | Group 6 | Group 7 | Group 8 |
| Netherlands | Ukraine | Portugal | France | Italy | England | Serbia and Montenegro | Croatia |
| Czech Republic | Turkey | Slovakia | Switzerland | Norway | Poland | Spain | Sweden |
| Romania Finland Macedonia Armenia Andorra | Denmark Greece Albania Georgia Kazakhstan | Russia Estonia Latvia Liechtenstein Luxembourg | Israel Republic of Ireland Cyprus Faroe Islands | Scotland Slovenia Belarus Moldova | Austria Northern Ireland Wales Azerbaijan | Bosnia and Herzegovina Belgium Lithuania San Marino | Bulgaria Hungary Iceland Malta |

### Group 1

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | | | | | | | |
| 1 | Netherlands | 12 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 27 | 3 | +24 | 32 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup | — | 2–0 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 4–0 |
| 2 | Czech Republic | 12 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 35 | 12 | +23 | 27 | Advance to second round | 0–2 | — | 1–0 | 4–3 | 6–1 | 4–1 | 8–1 |
| 3 | Romania | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 20 | 10 | +10 | 25 | | 0–2 | 2–0 | — | 2–1 | 2–1 | 3–0 | 2–0 |
| 4 | Finland | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 21 | 19 | +2 | 16 | | 0–4 | 0–3 | 0–1 | — | 5–1 | 3–1 | 3–0 |
| 5 | Macedonia | 12 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 24 | −13 | 9 | | 2–2 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 0–3 | — | 3–0 | 0–0 |
| 6 | Armenia | 12 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 25 | −16 | 7 | | 0–1 | 0–3 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 1–2 | — | 2–1 |
| 7 | Andorra | 12 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 34 | −30 | 5 | | 0–3 | 0–4 | 1–5 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–3 | — |

### Group 2

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | | | | | | | |
| 1 | Ukraine | 12 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 18 | 7 | +11 | 25 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup | — | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 2–0 |
| 2 | Turkey | 12 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 23 | 9 | +14 | 23 | Advance to second round | 0–3 | — | 2–2 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 4–0 |
| 3 | Denmark | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 24 | 12 | +12 | 22 | | 1–1 | 1–1 | — | 1–0 | 3–1 | 6–1 | 3–0 |
| 4 | Greece | 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 15 | 9 | +6 | 21 | | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | — | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–1 |
| 5 | Albania | 12 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 11 | 20 | −9 | 13 | | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 2–1 | — | 3–2 | 2–1 |
| 6 | Georgia | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 25 | −11 | 10 | | 1–1 | 2–5 | 2–2 | 1–3 | 2–0 | — | 0–0 |
| 7 | Kazakhstan | 12 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 6 | 29 | −23 | 1 | | 1–2 | 0–6 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 1–2 | — |

### Group 3

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | | | | | | | |
| 1 | Portugal | 12 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 35 | 5 | +30 | 30 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup | — | 2–0 | 7–1 | 4–0 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 6–0 |
| 2 | Slovakia | 12 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 24 | 8 | +16 | 23 | Advance to second round | 1–1 | — | 0–0 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 7–0 | 3–1 |
| 3 | Russia | 12 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 23 | 12 | +11 | 23 | | 0–0 | 1–1 | — | 4–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 5–1 |
| 4 | Estonia | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 16 | 17 | −1 | 17 | | 0–1 | 1–2 | 1–1 | — | 2–1 | 2–0 | 4–0 |
| 5 | Latvia | 12 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 18 | 21 | −3 | 15 | | 0–2 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 2–2 | — | 1–0 | 4–0 |
| 6 | Liechtenstein | 12 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 13 | 23 | −10 | 8 | | 2–2 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 1–3 | — | 3–0 |
| 7 | Luxembourg | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 5 | 48 | −43 | 0 | | 0–5 | 0–4 | 0–4 | 0–2 | 3–4 | 0–4 | — |

### Group 4

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | | | | | | |
| 1 | France | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 14 | 2 | +12 | 20 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup | — | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 4–0 | 3–0 |
| 2 | Switzerland | 10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 18 | 7 | +11 | 18 | Advance to second round | 1–1 | — | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 6–0 |
| 3 | Israel | 10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 15 | 10 | +5 | 18 | | 1–1 | 2–2 | — | 1–1 | 2–1 | 2–1 |
| 4 | Republic of Ireland | 10 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 5 | +7 | 17 | | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 | — | 3–0 | 2–0 |
| 5 | Cyprus | 10 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 20 | −12 | 4 | | 0–2 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 0–1 | — | 2–2 |
| 6 | Faroe Islands | 10 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 27 | −23 | 1 | | 0–2 | 1–3 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 0–3 | — |

### Group 5

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | | | | | | |
| 1 | Italy | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 8 | +9 | 23 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup | — | 2–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 4–3 | 2–1 |
| 2 | Norway | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 18 | Advance to second round | 0–0 | — | 1–2 | 3–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 |
| 3 | Scotland | 10 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 13 | | 1–1 | 0–1 | — | 0–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 |
| 4 | Slovenia | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 13 | −3 | 12 | | 1–0 | 2–3 | 0–3 | — | 1–1 | 3–0 |
| 5 | Belarus | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 14 | −2 | 10 | | 1–4 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | — | 4–0 |
| 6 | Moldova | 10 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 16 | −11 | 5 | | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 2–0 | — |

### Group 6

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | | | | | | |
| 1 | England | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 5 | +12 | 25 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup | — | 2–1 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 |
| 2 | Poland | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 27 | 9 | +18 | 24 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup | 1–2 | — | 3–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 8–0 |
| 3 | Austria | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 15 | 12 | +3 | 15 | | 2–2 | 1–3 | — | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 |
| 4 | Northern Ireland | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 18 | −8 | 9 | | 1–0 | 0–3 | 3–3 | — | 2–3 | 2–0 |
| 5 | Wales | 10 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 15 | −5 | 8 | | 0–1 | 2–3 | 0–2 | 2–2 | — | 2–0 |
| 6 | Azerbaijan | 10 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 21 | −20 | 3 | | 0–1 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | — |

### Group 7

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | | | | | | |
| 1 | Serbia and Montenegro | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 16 | 1 | +15 | 22 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup | — | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 5–0 |
| 2 | Spain | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 19 | 3 | +16 | 20 | Advance to second round | 1–1 | — | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 5–0 |
| 3 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 9 | +3 | 16 | | 0–0 | 1–1 | — | 1–0 | 1–1 | 3–0 |
| 4 | Belgium | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 11 | +5 | 12 | | 0–2 | 0–2 | 4–1 | — | 1–1 | 8–0 |
| 5 | Lithuania | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 9 | −1 | 10 | | 0–2 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | — | 4–0 |
| 6 | San Marino | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 40 | −38 | 0 | | 0–3 | 0–6 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 0–1 | — |

### Group 8

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | | | | | | |
| 1 | Croatia | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 21 | 5 | +16 | 24 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup | — | 1–0 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 4–0 | 3–0 |
| 2 | Sweden | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 30 | 4 | +26 | 24 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup | 0–1 | — | 3–0 | 3–0 | 3–1 | 6–0 |
| 3 | Bulgaria | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 17 | 17 | 0 | 15 | | 1–3 | 0–3 | — | 2–0 | 3–2 | 4–1 |
| 4 | Hungary | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 14 | −1 | 14 | | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | — | 3–2 | 4–0 |
| 5 | Iceland | 10 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 27 | −13 | 4 | | 1–3 | 1–4 | 1–3 | 2–3 | — | 4–1 |
| 6 | Malta | 10 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 32 | −28 | 3 | | 1–1 | 0–7 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | — |

## Play-offs
### Ranking of runners-up

Because three groups each had seven teams and the others each had six, matches against the 7th placed team were discarded for the purposes of the ranking
| Pos | Grp | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | 8 | Sweden | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 30 | 4 | +26 | 24 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup |
| 2 | 6 | Poland | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 27 | 9 | +18 | 24 | Qualification to 2006 FIFA World Cup |
| 3 | 1 | Czech Republic | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 23 | 11 | +12 | 21 | Advance to second round (play-offs) |
| 4 | 7 | Spain | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 19 | 3 | +16 | 20 | Advance to second round (play-offs) |
| 5 | 4 | Switzerland | 10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 18 | 7 | +11 | 18 | Advance to second round (play-offs) |
| 6 | 5 | Norway | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 18 | Advance to second round (play-offs) |
| 7 | 3 | Slovakia | 10 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 17 | 7 | +10 | 17 | Advance to second round (play-offs) |
| 8 | 2 | Turkey | 10 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 13 | 9 | +4 | 17 | Advance to second round (play-offs) |

### Matches

| Team 1 | Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
| Spain | 6–2 | Slovakia | 5–1 | 1–1 |
| Switzerland | 4–4 (a) | Turkey | 2–0 | 2–4 |
| Norway | 0–2 | Czech Republic | 0–1 | 0–1 |

## Qualified teams

The following 14 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.
| Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup |
| Germany | Hosts | 6 July 2000 | 15 (1934, 1938, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002) |
| Netherlands | Group 1 winners | 8 October 2005 | 7 (1934, 1938, 1974, 1978, 1990, 1994, 1998) |
| Ukraine | Group 2 winners | 3 September 2005 | 0 (debut) |
| Portugal | Group 3 winners | 8 October 2005 | 3 (1966, 1986, 2002) |
| France | Group 4 winners | 12 October 2005 | 11 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1954, 1958, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1998, 2002) |
| Italy | Group 5 winners | 8 October 2005 | 15 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002) |
| England | Group 6 winners | 8 October 2005 | 11 (1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1998, 2002) |
| Serbia and Montenegro | Group 7 winners | 12 October 2005 | 9 (1930, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1974, 1982, 1990, 1998) |
| Croatia | Group 8 winners | 8 October 2005 | 2 (1998, 2002) |
| Poland | Top 2 runners-up | 8 October 2005 | 6 (1938, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 2002) |
| Sweden | Top 2 runners-up | 8 October 2005 | 10 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1958, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1990, 1994, 2002) |
| Spain | Play-off winners | 16 November 2005 | 11 (1934, 1950, 1962, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002) |
| Switzerland | Play-off winners | 16 November 2005 | 7 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1994) |
| Czech Republic | Play-off winners | 16 November 2005 | 8 (1934, 1938, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1970, 1982, 1990) |
    $^1$ 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.
    $^3$ From 1930 to 1998, Serbia and Montenegro competed as Yugoslavia.
    $^4$ From 1934 to 1990, the Czech Republic competed as Czechoslovakia.

## Top goalscorers

There were 778 goals scored in 282 matches, for an average of 2.76 goals per match.
11 goals
* Pauleta
9 goals
* Jan Koller
8 goals
* Alexei Eremenko
* Zlatan Ibrahimović
7 goals
* Dimitar Berbatov
* Tomáš Rosický
* Andres Oper
* Ruud Van Nistelrooy
* Tomasz Frankowski
* Maciej Żurawski
* Cristiano Ronaldo
* Adrian Mutu
* Fernando Torres
* Freddie Ljungberg
* Alexander Frei
* Fatih Tekke
Below are full goalscorer lists for all groups and the play-off round:
* Group 1
* Group 2
* Group 3
* Group 4
* Group 5
* Group 6
* Group 7
* Group 8
* Play-offs