2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
The European Zone of qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup saw 53 teams competing for 13 places at the finals in Brazil. The draw for the qualification groups was held at the World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 30 July 2011.
The qualification format was the same as 2010. The teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five, with the nine group winners qualifying directly for the final tournament. The eight best runners-up (determined by records against the first-, third-, fourth- and fifth-placed teams in their groups to ensure equity between different groups) were drawn in two-legged play-offs that determined the remaining four qualifying nations.
The qualification process started on 7 September 2012, over two months after the end of UEFA Euro 2012, and ended on 19 November 2013. Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and Switzerland qualified in the first round by winning their groups. Croatia, France, Greece, and Portugal qualified via the second round play-offs.
Format
All 53 UEFA national teams entered qualification, aiming to secure one of the 13 European Zone slots for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The draw for the qualification groups was held at the World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 30 July 2011. The qualification format was the same as 2010. The teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five, with the nine group winners qualifying directly for the final tournament. The eight best runners-up (determined by records against the first-, third-, fourth- and fifth-placed teams in their groups to ensure equity between different groups) were drawn in two-legged play-offs that determined the remaining four qualifying nations.
Seeding
The July 2011 FIFA World Rankings were used to seed the teams. In consideration of the delicate political situations of the relationships between Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as relations between Russia and Georgia, UEFA requested that FIFA maintain the current UEFA policy not to draw these teams into the same qualification groups – although as Armenia and Azerbaijan were in the same pot they could not be drawn together anyway. The mechanism for keeping Russia and Georgia apart was confirmed by the FIFA Organising Committee on 29 July 2011.
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.
First round
The matches were played between 7 September 2012 and 15 October 2013. An initial schedule that includes matches before this date was not ratified by FIFA. A win was awarded 3 points, a draw was awarded 1 point, and a loss 0. The team with the most points in each group secured direct qualification for the final tournament of the World Cup.
Summary
Groups
Tie-breaking criteria
If two teams had the same number of points the criteria below were used.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Group I
Second round
Group runners-up
The eight best group runners-up contested the second round, where they were paired into four two-legged (home-and-away) fixtures. The four winners qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Because one group had one team fewer than the others, matches against the last-placed team in each of the six-team groups were not included in this ranking. Teams were ranked by the following parameters in order:
Highest number of points
Goal difference
Highest number of goals scored
Matches
The second round draw took place at the headquarters of FIFA in Zurich on 21 October 2013. The October 2013 FIFA World Rankings were used to decide which of the teams would be seeded (shown below in brackets).
One team from pot 1 was paired with one from pot 2 as shown below. The matches were played on 15 and 19 November 2013. Winners: Portugal, France, Greece and Croatia as shown in bold.
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Qualified teams
The following 13 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
2 Competed as Soviet Union.
3 Competed as West Germany. A separate team for East Germany also participated in qualifications during this time, having only competed in 1974.
Discipline
In the qualification tournament, a player would be suspended for the subsequent match in the competition for either getting red card or accumulating two yellow cards in two different matches. UEFA's Control and Disciplinary body has the ability to increase the automatic one match ban for a red card (e.g., for violent conduct). Single yellow card cautions would be erased prior to the play-off portion, and would not carry over. Single yellow cards and suspensions for yellow card accumulations do not carry over to the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament matches. The following players were suspended during the final tournament – for one or more games – as a result of red cards or yellow card accumulations:
Goalscorers
11 goals
Robin van Persie
10 goals
Edin Džeko
8 goals
Vedad Ibišević
Mesut Özil
Cristiano Ronaldo
Zlatan Ibrahimović
7 goals
Wayne Rooney
6 goals
David Alaba
Robbie Keane
Eden Ben Basat
Tomer Hemed
Hélder Postiga
5 goals
Zvjezdan Misimović
Franck Ribéry
Marco Reus
Kostas Mitroglou
Mario Balotelli
Jeremain Lens
Rafael van der Vaart
Ciprian Marica
Aleksandr Kerzhakov
Milivoje Novaković
Umut Bulut
Burak Yılmaz
Andriy Yarmolenko
4 goals
Yura Movsisyan
Kevin De Bruyne
Mario Mandžukić
Daniel Agger
Frank Lampard
Danny Welbeck
Mario Götze
Miroslav Klose
Thomas Müller
André Schürrle
Dimitris Salpingidis
Balázs Dzsudzsák
Gylfi Sigurðsson
Kolbeinn Sigþórsson
Pablo Daniel Osvaldo
Eugen Sidorenco
Andrija Delibašić
Dejan Damjanović
Jakub Błaszczykowski
Bruno Alves
Aleksandr Kokorin
Aleksandar Kolarov
Pedro
Marko Dević
Gareth Bale
3 goals
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Martin Harnik
Marc Janko
Miralem Pjanić
Stanislav Manolev
Aleksandar Tonev
Nicklas Bendtner
Jermain Defoe
Toni Kroos
Birkir Bjarnason
Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson
Jonathan Walters
Arjen Robben
Robert Lewandowski
Gabriel Torje
Viktor Fayzulin
Roman Shirokov
Filip Đuričić
Martin Jakubko
Marek Sapara
Álvaro Negredo
Johan Elmander
Fabian Schär
Yevhen Khacheridi
Yevhen Konoplyanka
Yevhen Seleznyov
Roman Bezus
Aaron Ramsey
2 goals
Edgar Çani
Valdet Rama
Hamdi Salihi
Aras Özbiliz
Philipp Hosiner
Andreas Ivanschitz
Zlatko Junuzović
Ruslan Abishov
Christian Benteke
Eden Hazard
Vincent Kompany
Romelu Lukaku
Kevin Mirallas
Emil Gargorov
Ivelin Popov
Eduardo
Efstathios Aloneftis
Tomáš Pekhart
Matěj Vydra
Morten Rasmussen
Steven Gerrard
Daniel Sturridge
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Konstantin Vassiljev
Teemu Pukki
Karim Benzema
Olivier Giroud
Mamadou Sakho
Per Mertesacker
Theofanis Gekas
Dániel Böde
Zoltán Gera
Tamás Hajnal
Vladimir Koman
Ádám Szalai
Alfreð Finnbogason
Daniele De Rossi
Andrei Finonchenko
Kairat Nurdauletov
Aleksandrs Cauņa
Edgaras Česnauskis
Deivydas Matulevičius
Stefano Bensi
Daniel da Mota
Aurélien Joachim
Agim Ibraimi
Michael Mifsud
Alexandru Antoniuc
Fatos Bećiraj
Stevan Jovetić
Mirko Vučinić
Elsad Zverotić
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
Bruno Martins Indi
Ruben Schaken
Gareth McAuley
Martin Paterson
Tarik Elyounoussi
Brede Hangeland
Joshua King
Adrian Mierzejewski
Łukasz Piszczek
Piotr Zieliński
Silvestre Varela
Costin Lazăr
Bogdan Stancu
Denis Glushakov
Aleksandr Samedov
Robert Snodgrass
Dušan Tadić
Marek Hamšík
Tim Matavž
Jordi Alba
Sergio Ramos
Rasmus Elm
Tobias Hysén
Alexander Kačaniklić
Mario Gavranović
Gökhan Inler
Stephan Lichtsteiner
Xherdan Shaqiri
Granit Xhaka
Mevlüt Erdinç
Selçuk İnan
Artem Fedetskiy
Roman Zozulya
1 goal
Erjon Bogdani
Odise Roshi
Armando Sadiku
Gevorg Ghazaryan
Karlen Mkrtchyan
Artur Sarkisov
György Garics
Sebastian Prödl
Rauf Aliyev
Rahid Amirguliyev
Rufat Dadashov
Vagif Javadov
Mahir Shukurov
Renan Bressan
Stanislaw Drahun
Egor Filipenko
Timofei Kalachev
Anton Putsila
Dmitry Verkhovtsov
Sergei Kornilenko
Steven Defour
Marouane Fellaini
Guillaume Gillet
Jan Vertonghen
Ermin Bičakčić
Izet Hajrović
Senad Lulić
Haris Medunjanin
Radoslav Dimitrov
Ivan Ivanov
Georgi Milanov
Dimitar Rangelov
Vedran Ćorluka
Nikica Jelavić
Niko Kranjčar
Dejan Lovren
Ivica Olić
Ivan Perišić
Ivan Rakitić
Darijo Srna
Vincent Laban
Constantinos Makrides
Bořek Dočkal
Theodor Gebre Selassie
Daniel Kolář
Libor Kozák
Jan Rezek
Tomáš Rosický
Tomáš Hübschman
David Lafata
Václav Kadlec
Leon Andreasen
Andreas Bjelland
Andreas Cornelius
Simon Kjær
William Kvist
Nicki Bille Nielsen
Niki Zimling
Leighton Baines
Rickie Lambert
James Milner
Andros Townsend
Ashley Young
Henri Anier
Tarmo Kink
Joel Lindpere
Andres Oper
Rógvi Baldvinsson
Fróði Benjaminsen
Arnbjørn Hansen
Hallur Hansson
Roman Eremenko
Kasper Hämäläinen
Étienne Capoue
Abou Diaby
Christophe Jallet
Samir Nasri
Paul Pogba
Mathieu Valbuena
Guram Kashia
Alexander Kobakhidze
Tornike Okriashvili
İlkay Gündoğan
Sami Khedira
Lazaros Christodoulopoulos
Giorgos Karagounis
Sotiris Ninis
Nikos Spyropoulos
Roland Juhász
Krisztián Németh
Nemanja Nikolić
Tamás Priskin
Vilmos Vanczak
Kári Árnason
Kevin Doyle
Andy Keogh
Darren O'Dea
John O'Shea
Marc Wilson
Rami Gershon
Maor Melikson
Bibras Natcho
Maharan Radi
Lior Refaelov
Itay Shechter
Eran Zahavi
Giorgio Chiellini
Mattia Destro
Alessandro Florenzi
Alberto Gilardino
Riccardo Montolivo
Federico Peluso
Andrea Pirlo
Alberto Aquilani
Heinrich Schmidtgal
Dmitriy Shomko
Nauris Bulvītis
Edgars Gauračs
Kaspars Gorkšs
Vladimirs Kamešs
Renārs Rode
Valērijs Šabala
Māris Verpakovskis
Artūrs Zjuzins
Martin Büchel
Mathias Christen
Nicolas Hasler
Michele Polverino
Fiodor Cernych
Tadas Kijanskas
Saulius Mikoliūnas
Darvydas Šernas
Marius Žaliūkas
Mathias Jänisch
Adis Jahović
Jovan Kostovski
Nikolče Noveski
Aleksandar Trajkovski
Ivan Tričkovski
Roderick Briffa
Clayton Failla
Edward Herrera
Igor Armaș
Serghei Dadu
Alexandru Epureanu
Viorel Frunză
Artur Ioniță
Alexandru Suvorov
Luka Đorđević
Nikola Drinčić
Luciano Narsingh
Wesley Sneijder
Kevin Strootman
Steven Davis
David Healy
Niall McGinn
Dean Shiels
Jamie Ward
Daniel Braaten
Markus Henriksen
Tom Høgli
John Arne Riise
Kamil Glik
Jakub Kosecki
Waldemar Sobota
Łukasz Teodorczyk
Jakub Wawrzyniak
Hugo Almeida
Fábio Coentrão
Ricardo Costa
Nani
Alexandru Chipciu
Valerică Găman
Gheorghe Grozav
Alexandru Maxim
Adrian Mutu
Mihai Pintilii
Cristian Tănase
Claudiu Keșerü
Vasili Berezutski
Alessandro Della Valle
Ikechi Anya
Grant Hanley
Shaun Maloney
Kenny Miller
James Morrison
Steven Naismith
Dušan Basta
Filip Đorđević
Branislav Ivanović
Lazar Marković
Aleksandar Mitrović
Stefan Šćepović
Miralem Sulejmani
Zoran Tošić
Ján Ďurica
Viktor Pečovský
Kornel Saláta
Valter Birsa
Boštjan Cesar
Josip Iličić
Kevin Kampl
Andraž Kirm
Rene Krhin
Marko Šuler
Juan Mata
Roberto Soldado
Xavi
Marcus Berg
Mikael Lustig
Martin Olsson
Anders Svensson
Tranquillo Barnetta
Blerim Džemaili
Michael Lang
Haris Seferovic
Emre Belözoğlu
Arda Turan
Edmar
Denys Harmash
Oleh Husyev
Vitaliy Mandzyuk
Yaroslav Rakytskiy
Simon Church
Hal Robson-Kanu
1 own goal
Ildefons Lima (playing against Hungary)
Igor Shitov (playing against Finland)
Ragnar Klavan (playing against Hungary)
Pól Jóhannus Justinussen (playing against the Republic of Ireland)
Joona Toivio (playing against France)
Vasilis Torosidis (playing against Romania)
Szilárd Devecseri (playing against the Netherlands)
Dmitriy Shomko (playing against the Republic of Ireland)
Stefan Ristovski (playing against Serbia)
Ryan Camilleri (playing against Denmark)
Branko Bošković (playing against England)
Alessandro Della Valle (playing against England)
Martin Škrtel (playing against Greece)
References
External links
Results and schedule (FIFA.com version)
Results and schedule (UEFA.com version)
Uefa
FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
World
World