1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

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). Teams in bold eventually qualified for the final tournament, teams in bold italic qualified for the final tournament through the play-offs, and teams in italic participated in the play-offs but did not qualify for the final tournament.
Summary
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
Group 8
Group 9
Ranking of second-placed teams
Record against the 1st, 3rd and 4th-placed team in their groups.
Second round
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Qualified teams
The following 15 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.
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.
Goalscorers
There were 667 goals scored in 228 matches, for an average of 2.93 goals per match.
14 goals
Predrag Mijatović
9 goals
Savo Milošević
8 goals
Gheorghe Popescu
Hakan Şükür
7 goals
Toni Polster
Tony Cascarino
Dennis Bergkamp
Kennet Andersson
Dejan Savićević
6 goals
Luís Oliveira
Emil Kostadinov
Oliver Bierhoff
Viorel Moldovan
Kevin Gallacher
5 goals
Lorenzo Staelens
Davor Šuker
Alan Shearer
Antti Sumiala
Ulf Kirsten
Gheorghe Hagi
Alfonso Pérez
Oktay Derelioğlu
Dean Saunders
4 goals
Peter Stöger
Luc Nilis
Elvir Bolić
Krasimir Balakov
Alen Bokšić
Vladimír Šmicer
Brian Laudrup
David Connolly
Mitko Stojkovski
Frank de Boer
Pierre van Hooijdonk
Ståle Solbakken
Dorinel Munteanu
Dan Petrescu
Dušan Tittel
Luis Enrique
Fernando Hierro
Kubilay Türkyilmaz
Andriy Shevchenko
Mark Hughes
3 goals
Éric Assadourian
Andreas Herzog
Slaven Bilić
Zvonimir Boban
Siniša Gogić
Allan Nielsen
Teddy Sheringham
Todi Jónsson
Jari Litmanen
Shota Arveladze
Thomas Häßler
Jürgen Klinsmann
Demis Nikolaidis
Eli Ohana
Fabrizio Ravanelli
Edgaras Jankauskas
Dejvi Glavevski
Gjorgji Hristov
Iain Dowie
Tore André Flo
Kjetil Rekdal
Ole Gunnar Solskjær
Andrzej Juskowiak
Luís Figo
Gheorghe Craioveanu
Constantin Gâlcă
Igor Kolyvanov
Peter Dubovský
Tibor Jančula
Jozef Majoroš
Primož Gliha
Julen Guerrero
Martin Dahlin
Pär Zetterberg
Serhii Rebrov
Andy Melville
2 goals
Bledar Kola
Uladzimir Makowski
Émile Mpenza
Eric Van Meir
Hasan Salihamidžić
Goran Vlaović
Yiannos Iouannou
Nikodimos Papavasiliou
Radek Bejbl
Pavel Kuka
Patrik Berger
Miklos Molnar
Paul Gascoigne
Ian Wright
Uni Arge
Jan Allan Müller
Temuri Ketsbaia
Béla Illés
László Klausz
Elek Nyilas
Arnór Guðjohnsen
Tryggvi Guðmundsson
Brynjar Björn Gunnarsson
Roy Keane
Niall Quinn
Tal Banin
Itzik Zohar
Pierluigi Casiraghi
Paolo Maldini
Christian Vieri
Gianfranco Zola
Vits Rimkus
Jurijs Ševļakovs
Mihails Zemļinskis
Orestas Buitkus
Saša Ćirić
Miroslav Gjokić
Toni Micevski
Ronald de Boer
Wim Jonk
Patrick Kluivert
Petter Rudi
Pedro Barbosa
João Vieira Pinto
Dmitri Alenichev
Vladimir Beschastnykh
Yuriy Nikiforov
Igor Simutenkov
David Hopkin
Július Šimon
Zlatko Zahovič
Guillermo Amor
Pep Guardiola
Juan Antonio Pizzi
Stéphane Chapuisat
Murat Yakin
Arif Erdem
Yuriy Maksymov
Ryan Giggs
Mark Pembridge
Slaviša Jokanović
Vladimir Jugović
Siniša Mihajlović
Dragan Stojković
1 goal
Bajram Franholli
Altin Haxhi
Igli Tare
Rudi Vata
Garnik Avalyan
Karapet Mikaelyan
Artur Petrosyan
Hakob Ter-Petrosyan
Harutyun Vardanyan
Andreas Heraf
Heimo Pfeifenberger
Ivica Vastić
Vyacheslav Lychkin
Vidadi Rzayev
Nazim Suleymanov
Valyantsin Byalkevich
Sergei Gurenko
Petr Kachuro
Gert Claessens
Bertrand Crasson
Marc Degryse
Gert Verheyen
Marc Wilmots
Meho Kodro
Edin Mujčin
Daniel Borimirov
Ilia Gruev
Ilian Iliev
Trifon Ivanov
Yordan Lechkov
Luboslav Penev
Hristo Stoichkov
Ivaylo Yordanov
Silvio Marić
Robert Prosinečki
Zvonimir Soldo
Ioannis Okkas
Charalambos Pittas
Milenko Špoljarić
Martin Frýdek
Luboš Kozel
Luboš Kubík
Pavel Nedvěd
Jiří Novotný
Horst Siegl
Michael Laudrup
Per Pedersen
Marc Rieper
Michael Schjønberg
Nick Barmby
Les Ferdinand
Paul Scholes
Sergei Hohlov-Simson
Marko Kristal
Andres Oper
Indrek Zelinski
Jens Kristian Hansen
Øssur Hansen
John Petersen
Joonas Kolkka
Mika-Matti Paatelainen
Jari Vanhala
Georgi Kinkladze
Kakhaber Tskhadadze
Mario Basler
Fredi Bobić
Thomas Helmer
Stefan Kuntz
Olaf Marschall
Andreas Möller
Alekos Alexandris
Stratos Apostolakis
Giorgos Donis
Kostas Frantzeskos
Kostas Konstantinidis
Daniel Batista Lima
Nikos Machlas
Marinos Ouzounidis
Gábor Halmai
Zoltán Kovács
Ferenc Orosz
Flórián Urbán
Einar Daníelsson
Bjarni Guðjónsson
Þórður Guðjónsson
Sigurður Jónsson
Helgi Sigurðsson
Ian Harte
Ray Houghton
Denis Irwin
David Kelly
Mark Kennedy
Jason McAteer
Alan McLoughlin
Keith O'Neill
Andy Townsend
Gadi Brumer
Ronen Harazi
Roberto Baggio
Roberto Di Matteo
Vitālijs Astafjevs
Vladimirs Babičevs
Aleksandrs Jelisejevs
Mario Frick
Franz Schädler
Harry Zech
Valdas Ivanauskas
Arminas Narbekovas
Aidas Preikšaitis
Tomas Ražanauskas
Vaidotas Šlekys
Tomas Žiukas
Paolo Amodio
Robby Langers
Boban Babunski
Nedžmedin Memedi
Vančo Micevski
Sašo Miloševski
Artim Šakiri
Srgjan Zaharievski
Gilbert Agius
Stefan Sultana
Serghei Cleşcenco
Alexandru Curtianu
John Bosman
Phillip Cocu
Clarence Seedorf
Jaap Stam
Aron Winter
Michael Hughes
Neil Lennon
Gerry Taggart
Dan Eggen
Jostein Flo
Jahn Ivar Jakobsen
Øyvind Leonhardsen
Frank Strandli
Egil Østenstad
Henryk Bałuszyński
Krzysztof Bukalski
Marek Citko
Adam Ledwoń
Krzysztof Nowak
Mirosław Trzeciak
Krzysztof Warzycha
Sérgio Conceição
Rui Costa
Fernando Couto
Hélder Cristóvão
Domingos Paciência
Constantin Barbu
Anton Doboş
Ilie Dumitrescu
Adrian Ilie
Sergey Grishin
Andrei Kanchelskis
Valeri Karpin
Valery Kechinov
Alexei Kosolapov
Vladislav Radimov
Andrey Tikhonov
Sergei Yuran
Tom Boyd
John Collins
Gordon Durie
Darren Jackson
John McGinlay
Ľubomír Moravčík
Jaroslav Timko
Marian Zeman
Kiko
Oli
Raúl
Patrik Andersson
Mattias Jonson
Henrik Larsson
Adrian Kunz
Massimo Lombardo
Ciriaco Sforza
Saffet Ayküz
Oğuz Çetin
Hami Mandirali
Ertuğrul Sağlam
Sergen Yalçın
Vitaly Kosovsky
Serhiy Popov
Nathan Blake
John Robinson
Robbie Savage
Gary Speed
Branko Brnović
Miroslav Đukić
Zoran Mirković
1 own goal
Dražen Ladić (playing against Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Janek Meet (playing against Scotland)
Marek Lemsalu (playing against Latvia)
Óli Johannesen (playing against Spain)
Teuvo Moilanen (playing against Hungary)
Jurgen Kohler (playing against Albania)
Theodoros Zagorakis (playing against Denmark)
Fabio Cannavaro (playing against Russia)
Luca Gobbi (playing against Turkey)
Notes
To date, this was the last time that Portugal failed to qualify for a FIFA World Cup.
References
External links
UEFA Qualifier results with full game box scores at Scoreshelf.com
UEFA
FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
World Cup
World Cup