1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification

The 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification began in 1996. The final tournament was held in 1998 in Romania.

The 46 national teams were divided into nine groups (eight groups of 5 + one group of 6). The records of the nine group winners were compared, and the eighth and ninth ranked teams played-off against each other for the eight quarter finals spot. One of the eight quarter-finalist were then chosen to host the remaining fixtures.

Qualifying Groups

Group 1

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Greece	8	5	1	2	12	7	+5	16
Denmark	8	5	1	2	16	9	+7	16
Croatia	8	4	0	4	13	9	+4	12
Slovenia	8	3	0	5	9	13	−4	9
Bosnia and Herzegovina	8	1	2	5	6	18	−12	5

•  Greece qualify as group winners

Group 2

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
England	8	5	3	0	7	1	+6	18
Georgia	8	3	3	2	10	10	0	12
Italy	8	3	2	3	17	6	+11	11
Poland	8	1	5	2	10	15	−5	8
Moldova	8	1	1	6	5	17	−12	4

•  England qualify as group winners

Group 3

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Norway	8	5	2	1	22	10	+12	17
France	8	4	3	1	13	8	+5	15
Switzerland	8	2	3	3	13	17	−4	9
Finland	8	2	3	3	8	10	−2	9
Hungary	8	1	1	6	9	20	−11	4

•  Norway qualify as group winners

Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Sweden 10 9 0 1 30 6 +24 27  Austria 10 6 2 2 21 12 +9 20  Belarus 10 6 2 2 17 7 +10 20  Latvia 10 2 2 6 6 18 −12 8  Scotland 10 2 1 7 10 20 −10 7  Estonia 10 1 1 8 4 25 −21 4

Austria  — 2–0 7–1 0–0 4–0 0–4 Belarus  1–1 — 3–1 2–0 1–0 0–1 Estonia  0–1 1–1 — 0–1 0–1 0–2 Latvia  1–3 0–2 0–1 — 0–0 0–2 Scotland  1–2 0–3 4–0 2–4 — 1–4 Sweden  4–1 1–3 5–0 5–0 2–1 —

•  Sweden qualify as group winners

Group 5

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Russia	8	6	1	1	27	7	+20	19
Israel	8	5	2	1	17	9	+8	17
Bulgaria	8	4	0	4	16	12	+4	12
Cyprus	8	3	1	4	16	15	+1	10
Luxembourg	8	0	0	8	3	36	−33	0

•  Russia qualify as group winners

Group 6

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Spain	8	7	1	0	18	6	+12	22
Yugoslavia	8	6	0	2	14	3	+11	18
Slovakia	8	3	1	4	16	10	+6	10
Czech Republic	8	3	0	5	13	13	0	9
Malta	8	0	0	8	0	29	−29	0

•  Spain qualify as group winners

Group 7

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Netherlands	8	6	1	1	26	5	+21	19
Turkey	8	5	0	3	16	8	+8	15
Belgium	8	4	1	3	16	12	+4	13
Wales	8	4	0	4	9	9	0	12
San Marino	8	0	0	8	2	35	−33	0

•  Netherlands qualify as group winners

Group 8

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Romania	8	8	0	0	18	4	+14	24
Iceland	8	4	1	3	10	10	0	13
Republic of Ireland	8	3	0	5	11	7	+4	9
Lithuania	8	3	0	5	8	12	−4	9
Macedonia	8	1	1	6	3	17	−14	4

•  Romania qualify as group winners

Group 9

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Germany	8	6	2	0	20	3	+17	20
Ukraine	8	5	1	2	14	4	+10	16
Portugal	8	4	2	2	20	11	+9	14
Albania	8	1	1	6	6	19	−13	4
Armenia	8	1	0	7	8	31	−23	3

•  Germany qualify as group winners

Ranking of group winners

Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
8	Romania	6	6	0	0	14	4	+10	18
6	Spain	6	5	1	0	14	6	+8	16
4	Sweden	6	5	0	1	18	4	+14	15
3	Norway	6	4	2	0	18	7	+11	14
9	Germany	6	4	2	0	12	3	+9	14
7	Netherlands	6	4	1	1	13	5	+8	13
5	Russia	6	4	1	1	12	6	+6	13
1	Greece	6	4	0	2	11	7	+4	12
2	England	6	3	3	0	4	1	+3	12

List of qualifying group winners. Teams 1–7 qualify automatically. Teams 8 & 9 play-off for the eighth spot. Only results between top four teams in group are used.

Qualifying play-off

Greece  v  England

13 November 1997

Greece	2 – 0	England
Dellas  78' Liberopoulos  90' (pen.)	Report

Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium, Heraklion Attendance: 4,000 Referee: Juan Fernández Marin (Spain)

England  v  Greece

17 December 1997

England	4 – 2	Greece
Heskey  21', 34' Owen  60' Hall  78'	Report	Konstantinidis  28' Hall  30' (o.g.)

Carrow Road, Norwich Attendance: 14,114 Referee: Éric Blareau (Belgium)

4–4 on aggregate, Greece won on away goals rule.

See also

• 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship