2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

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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 6 teams each and three groups of 7 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 teams in each group would play against each other in a home-and-away basis. The team with most points in each group would qualify to the World Cup. The runners-up would be ranked. For the sake of fairness, in groups with 7 teams, results against the 7th placed team were ignored. The two best ranked runners-up would also qualify to the World Cup. The other six runners-up were drawn into three home-and-away knock-out matches, winners of those matches 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.

If first-time finalists Ukraine caused a surprise, elsewhere many of the usual suspects were prominent. The Netherlands, Portugal, France, Italy and England all won their groups, although in the case of the French and English only after a stumble or two along the way.

For this edition, three British teams were drawn in the same group: England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the only one not in the same group being Scotland. This meant that there were to be at least 6 British derbies played. One of those most talked about by the press was the fixture between England and Wales, as it was to be the first(and to date only) time childhood friends and Manchester United teammates Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville played against each other in a competitive fixture.

One of the big shocks also included reigning European Champions Greece failing to qualify for the tournament finishing fourth in group 2 featuring Turkey, Denmark, and Ukraine. Another idiosyncrasy was Israel finishing unbeaten (in a tough group containing France, Switzerland and the Republic Of Ireland) yet coming third in the group and failing to even make the play-offs.

Serbia and Montenegro and Croatia also advanced to Germany at the head of their sections, the former forcing Spain into the play-offs in the process. Besides the eight group winners, two teams progressed automatically as best runners-up, namely Poland and Sweden while the play-offs offered a second chance to six others.

Contents 1 Tiebreakers 2 Group 1 3 Group 2 4 Group 3 5 Group 4 6 Group 5 7 Group 6 8 Group 7 9 Group 8 10 Play-offs

[edit] Tiebreakers

If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked as follows:

1. greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams
2. goal difference in matches between the tied teams
3. greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams
4. goal difference in all group matches
5. greater number of goals scored in all group matches
6. a play-off on neutral ground, with extra time and penalties if necessary (in qualifying)
7. drawing of lots (at the final event)

This is a change from the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where total goal difference was the first tiebreaker.

[edit] Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Netherlands 12 10 2 0 27 3 +24 32  Czech Republic 12 9 0 3 35 12 +23 27  Romania 12 8 1 3 20 10 +10 25  Finland 12 5 1 6 21 19 +2 16  Macedonia 12 2 3 7 11 24 −13 9  Armenia 12 2 1 9 9 25 −16 7  Andorra 12 1 2 9 4 34 −30 5

AND – 0-3 0-4 0-0 1-0 0-3 1-5  ARM 2-1 – 0-3 0-2 1-2 0-1 1-1  CZE 8-1 4-1 – 4-3 6-1 0-2 1-0  FIN 3-0 3-1 0-3 – 5-1 0-4 0-1  MKD 0-0 3-0 0-2 0-3 – 2-2 1-2  NED 4-0 2-0 2-0 3-1 0-0 – 2-0  ROU 2-0 3-0 2-0 2-1 2-1 0-2 –

[edit] Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Ukraine 12 7 4 1 18 7 +11 25  Turkey 12 6 5 1 23 9 +14 23  Denmark 12 6 4 2 24 12 +12 22  Greece 12 6 3 3 15 9 +6 21  Albania 12 4 1 7 11 20 −9 13  Georgia 12 2 4 6 14 25 −11 10  Kazakhstan 12 0 1 11 6 29 −23 1

ALB – 0-2 3-2 2–1 2-1 0-1 0-2  DEN 3-1 – 6-1 1-0 3-0 1-1 1-1  GEO 2-0 2-2 – 1-3 0-0 2-5 1-1  GRE 2-0 2-1 1-0 – 3-1 0-0 0-1  KAZ 0-1 1-2 1-2 1-2 – 0-6 1-2  TUR 2-0 2-2 1-1 0-0 4-0 – 0-3  UKR 2-2 1-0 2-0 1-1 2-0 0-1 –

[edit] Group 3

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Portugal 12 9 3 0 35 5 +30 30  Slovakia 12 6 5 1 24 8 +16 23  Russia 12 6 5 1 23 12 +11 23  Estonia 12 5 2 5 16 17 −1 17  Latvia 12 4 3 5 18 21 −3 15  Liechtenstein 12 2 2 8 13 23 −10 8  Luxembourg 12 0 0 12 5 48 −43 0

EST – 2-1 2-0 4-0 0-1 1-1 1-2  LVA 2-2 – 1-0 4-0 0-2 1-1 1-1  LIE 1-2 1-3 – 3-0 2-2 1-2 0-0  LUX 0-2 3-4 0-4 – 0-5 0-4 0-4  POR 4-0 3-0 2-1 6-0 – 7-1 2-0  RUS 4-0 2-0 2-0 5-1 0-0 – 1-1  SVK 1-0 4-1 7-0 3-1 1-1 0-0 –

[edit] Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  France 10 5 5 0 14 2 +12 20  Switzerland 10 4 6 0 18 7 +11 18  Israel 10 4 6 0 15 10 +5 18  Republic of Ireland 10 4 5 1 12 5 +7 17  Cyprus 10 1 1 8 8 20 −12 4  Faroe Islands 10 0 1 9 4 27 −23 1

CYP – 2-2 0-2 0-1 cv 1-2 1-3  FRO 0-3 – 0-2 0-2 0-2 1-3  FRA 4-0 3-0 – 0-0 0-0 0-0  IRL 3-0 2-0 0-1 – 2-2 0-0  ISR 2-1 2-1 1-1 1-1 – 2-2  SUI 1-0 6-0 1-1 1-1 1-1 –

[edit] Group 5

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Italy 10 7 2 1 17 8 +9 23  Norway 10 5 3 2 12 7 +5 18  Scotland 10 3 4 3 9 7 +2 13  Slovenia 10 3 3 4 10 13 −3 12  Belarus 10 2 4 4 12 14 −2 10  Moldova 10 1 2 7 5 16 −11 5

BLR – 1-4 4-0 0-1 0-0 1-1  ITA 4-3 – 2-1 2-1 2-0 1-0  MDA 2-0 0-1 – 0-0 1-1 1-2  NOR 1-1 0-0 1-0 – 1-2 3-0  SCO 0-1 1-1 2-0 0-1 – 0-0  SVN 1-1 1-0 3-0 2-3 0-3 –

[edit] Group 6

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  England 10 8 1 1 17 5 +12 25  Poland 10 8 0 2 27 9 +18 24  Austria 10 4 3 3 15 12 +3 15  Northern Ireland 10 2 3 5 10 18 −8 9  Wales 10 2 2 6 10 15 −5 8  Azerbaijan 10 0 3 7 1 21 −20 3

AUT – 2-0 2-2 2-0 1-3 1-0  AZE 0-0 – 0-1 0-0 0-3 1-1  ENG 1-0 2-0 – 4-0 2-1 2-0  NIR 3-3 2-0 1-0 – 0-3 2-3  POL 3-2 8-0 1-2 1-0 – 1-0  WAL 0-2 2-0 0-1 2-2 2-3 –

[edit] Group 7

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Serbia and Montenegro 10 6 4 0 16 1 +15 22  Spain 10 5 5 0 19 3 +16 20  Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 4 4 2 12 9 +3 16  Belgium 10 3 3 4 16 11 +5 12  Lithuania 10 2 4 4 8 9 −1 10  San Marino 10 0 0 10 2 40 −38 0

BEL – 4-1 1-1 8-0 0-2 0-2  BIH 1-0 – 1-1 3-0 0-0 1-1  LTU 1-1 0-1 – 4-0 0-2 0-0  SMR 1-2 1-3 0-1 – 0-3 0-6  SCG 0-0 1-0 2-0 5-0 – 0-0  ESP 2-0 1-1 1-0 5-0 1-1 –

[edit] Group 8

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Sweden 10 7 3 0 30 4 +24 24  Croatia 10 8 0 2 21 5 +16 24  Bulgaria 10 4 3 3 17 17 0 15  Hungary 10 4 2 4 13 14 −1 14  Iceland 10 1 1 8 14 27 −13 4  Malta 10 0 3 7 4 32 −28 3

BUL – 1-3 2-0 3-2 4-1 0-3  CRO 2-2 – 3-0 4-0 3-0 1-0  HUN 1-1 0-0 – 3-2 4-0 0-1  ISL 1-3 1-3 2-3 – 4-1 1-4  MLT 1-1 1-1 0-2 0-0 – 0-7  SWE 3-0 0-1 3-0 3-1 6-0 –

[edit] Play-offs

Sweden and Poland qualified directly to the World Cup. The other teams had to play-off.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Sweden	10	8	0	2	30	4	26	24
Poland	10	8	0	2	27	9	18	24
Czech Republic	10	7	0	3	23	11	12	21
Spain	10	5	5	0	19	3	16	20
Switzerland	10	4	6	0	18	7	11	18
Norway	10	5	3	2	12	7	5	18
Slovakia	10	4	5	1	17	7	10	17
Turkey	10	4	5	1	13	9	4	17

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