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 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 qualifying process started on 18 August 2004, over a month after the end of UEFA Euro 2004, and ended on 16 November 2005.

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.

France had its first successful World Cup qualifying campaign in 20 years – the team had qualified automatically as hosts in 1998 and as defending champions in 2002, then had missed the 1990 and 1994 tournaments.

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.

Qualification seeding (UEFA)

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.

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

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

Andorra  – 0–3 0–4 0–0 1–0 0–3 1–5 Armenia  2–1 – 0–3 0–2 1–2 0–1 1–1 Czech Republic  8–1 4–1 – 4–3 6–1 0–2 1–0 Finland  3–0 3–1 0–3 – 5–1 0–4 0–1 Macedonia  0–0 3–0 0–2 0–3 – 2–2 1–2 Netherlands  4–0 2–0 2–0 3–1 0–0 – 2–0 Romania  2–0 3–0 2–0 2–1 2–1 0–2 –

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

Albania  – 0–2 3–2 2–1 2–1 0–1 0–2 Denmark  3–1 – 6–1 1–0 3–0 1–1 1–1 Georgia  2–0 2–2 – 1–3 0–0 2–5 1–1 Greece  2–0 2–1 1–0 – 3–1 0–0 0–1 Kazakhstan  0–1 1–2 1–2 1–2 – 0–6 1–2 Turkey  2–0 2–2 1–1 0–0 4–0 – 0–3 Ukraine  2–2 1–0 2–0 1–1 2–0 0–1 –

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

Estonia  – 2–1 2–0 4–0 0–1 1–1 1–2 Latvia  2–2 – 1–0 4–0 0–2 1–1 1–1 Liechtenstein  1–2 1–3 – 3–0 2–2 1–2 0–0 Luxembourg  0–2 3–4 0–4 – 0–5 0–4 0–4 Portugal  4–0 3–0 2–1 6–0 – 7–1 2–0 Russia  4–0 2–0 2–0 5–1 0–0 – 1–1 Slovakia  1–0 4–1 7–0 3–1 1–1 0–0 –

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

Cyprus  – 2–2 0–2 1–2 0–1 1–3 Faroe Islands  0–3 – 0–2 0–2 0–2 1–3 France  4–0 3–0 – 0–0 0–0 0–0 Israel  2–1 2–1 1–1 – 1–1 2–2 Republic of Ireland  3–0 2–0 0–1 2–2 – 0–0 Switzerland   1–0 6–0 1–1 1–1 1–1 –

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

Belarus  – 1–4 4–0 0–1 0–0 1–1 Italy  4–3 – 2–1 2–1 2–0 1–0 Moldova  2–0 0–1 – 0–0 1–1 1–2 Norway  1–1 0–0 1–0 – 1–2 3–0 Scotland  0–1 1–1 2–0 0–1 – 0–0 Slovenia  1–1 1–0 3–0 2–3 0–3 –

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

Austria  – 2–0 2–2 2–0 1–3 1–0 Azerbaijan  0–0 – 0–1 0–0 0–3 1–1 England  1–0 2–0 – 4–0 2–1 2–0 Northern Ireland  3–3 2–0 1–0 – 0–3 2–3 Poland  3–2 8–0 1–2 1–0 – 1–0 Wales  0–2 2–0 0–1 2–2 2–3 –

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

Belgium  – 4–1 1–1 8–0 0–2 0–2 Bosnia and Herzegovina  1–0 – 1–1 3–0 0–0 1–1 Lithuania  1–1 0–1 – 4–0 0–2 0–0 San Marino  1–2 1–3 0–1 – 0–3 0–6 Serbia and Montenegro  0–0 1–0 2–0 5–0 – 0–0 Spain  2–0 1–1 1–0 5–0 1–1 –

Group 8

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Croatia 10 7 3 0 21 5 +16 24  Sweden 10 8 0 2 30 4 +26 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

Bulgaria  – 1–3 2–0 3–2 4–1 0–3 Croatia  2–2 – 3–0 4–0 3–0 1–0 Hungary  1–1 0–0 – 3–2 4–0 0–1 Iceland  1–3 1–3 2–3 – 4–1 1–4 Malta  1–1 1–1 0–2 0–0 – 0–7 Sweden  3–0 0–1 3–0 3–1 6–0 –

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

First leg

Spain  v  Slovakia

12 November 2005 22:00 CET

Spain	5–1	Slovakia
Luis García  10', 18', 74' Torres  65' (pen.) Morientes  79'	Report	Németh  49'

Vicente Calderón Stadium, Madrid Attendance: 47,210 Referee: Massimo De Santis (Italy)

Switzerland   v  Turkey

12 November 2005 20:45 CET

Switzerland	2–0	Turkey
Senderos  41' Behrami  86'	Report

Stade de Suisse, Bern Attendance: 31,130 Referee: Ľuboš Micheľ (Slovakia)

Norway  v  Czech Republic

12 November 2005 19:30 CET

Norway	0–1	Czech Republic
	Report	Šmicer  31'

Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo Attendance: 24,264 Referee: Massimo Busacca (Switzerland)

Second leg

Slovakia  v  Spain

16 November 2005 20:15 CET

Slovakia	1–1	Spain
Hološko  50'	Report	Villa  71'

Tehelné pole, Bratislava Attendance: 23,587 Referee: Markus Merk (Germany)

Spain won 6–2 on aggregate.

Turkey  v   Switzerland

16 November 2005 20:15 EET

Turkey	4–2	Switzerland
Tuncay  22', 36', 89' Necati  52' (pen.)	Report	Frei  2' (pen.) Streller  84'

Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, Istanbul Attendance: 42,000 Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium)

Switzerland 4–4 Turkey. Switzerland won on away goals.

Czech Republic  v  Norway

16 November 2005 20:15 CET

Czech Republic	1–0	Norway
Rosický  35'	Report

Toyota Arena, Prague Attendance: 17,464 Referee: Graham Poll (England)

Czech Republic won 2–0 on aggregate.

External links

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