1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

A total of 39 UEFA teams entered qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. However, Liechtenstein withdrew before the draw was made. Moreover, firstly the CIS, then Russia took the spot of Soviet Union after the Soviet Union was dissolved, and Yugoslavia were suspended by FIFA due to United Nations sanctions stemming from the Yugoslav wars. The European zone was allocated 13 from 24 places in the final tournament. Germany, the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 12 spots open for competition between 37 teams.

The 37 teams were divided into six groups, five of six teams each and one of seven teams (though Group 5 ended up with just five teams after Yugoslavia were suspended). The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners and runners-up would qualify.

San Marino and Faroe Islands competed in World Cup qualifiers for the first time, and Israel moved to UEFA after competing in Oceanian zone for 1986 and 1990 qualification. while Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia competed separately after playing as a part of the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1990.

Seedings

The draw was made on 8 December 1991.[1] The national teams which eventually qualified for the final tournament are presented in bold.

Pool 1	Pool 2	Pool 3	Pool 4	Pool 5	Pool 6
Italy England Spain Belgium Soviet Union France	Yugoslavia Czechoslovakia Netherlands Scotland Austria Republic of Ireland	Romania Denmark Poland Hungary Portugal Sweden	Northern Ireland Bulgaria Switzerland Norway Greece Wales	Turkey Iceland Finland Albania Malta Cyprus	Luxembourg San Marino Faroe Islands Israel Estonia Latvia Lithuania

Summary

Winner and runner-up of each group qualified directly for the 1994 FIFA World Cup

Other teams were eliminated

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6
Italy Switzerland	Norway Netherlands	Spain Republic of Ireland	Romania Belgium	Greece Russia	Sweden Bulgaria
Portugal Scotland Malta Estonia	England Poland Turkey San Marino	Denmark Northern Ireland Lithuania Latvia Albania	Czechoslovakia Wales Cyprus Faroe Islands	Iceland Hungary Luxembourg	France Austria Finland Israel

Group 1

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Italy	10	7	2	1	22	7	+15	16
Switzerland	10	6	3	1	23	6	+17	15
Portugal	10	6	2	2	18	5	+13	14
Scotland	10	4	3	3	14	13	+1	11
Malta	10	1	1	8	3	23	−20	3
Estonia	10	0	1	9	1	27	−26	1


Estonia	–	0–3	0–1	0–2	0–3	0–6
Italy	2–0	–	6–1	1–0	3–1	2–2
Malta	0–0	1–2	–	0–1	0–2	0–2
Portugal	3–0	1–3	4–0	–	5–0	1–0
Scotland	3–1	0–0	3–0	0–0	–	1–1
Switzerland	4–0	1–0	3–0	1–1	3–1	–

Group 2

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Norway	10	7	2	1	25	5	+20	16
Netherlands	10	6	3	1	29	9	+20	15
England	10	5	3	2	26	9	+17	13
Poland	10	3	2	5	10	15	−5	8
Turkey	10	3	1	6	11	19	−8	7
San Marino	10	0	1	9	2	46	−44	1


England	–	2–2	1–1	3–0	6–0	4–0
Netherlands	2–0	–	0–0	2–2	6–0	3–1
Norway	2–0	2–1	–	1–0	10–0	3–1
Poland	1–1	1–3	0–3	–	1–0	1–0
San Marino	1–7	0–7	0–2	0–3	–	0–0
Turkey	0–2	1–3	2–1	2–1	4–1	–

Group 3

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Spain	12	8	3	1	27	4	+23	19
Republic of Ireland	12	7	4	1	19	6	+13	18
Denmark	12	7	4	1	15	2	+13	18
Northern Ireland	12	5	3	4	14	13	+1	13
Lithuania	12	2	3	7	8	21	−13	7
Latvia	12	0	5	7	4	21	−17	5
Albania	12	1	2	9	6	26	−20	4


Albania	–	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–2	1–2	1–5
Denmark	4–0	–	2–0	4–0	1–0	0–0	1–0
Latvia	0–0	0–0	–	1–2	1–2	0–2	0–0
Lithuania	3–1	0–0	1–1	–	0–1	0–1	0–2
Northern Ireland	3–0	0–1	2–0	2–2	–	1–1	0–0
Republic of Ireland	2–0	1–1	4–0	2–0	3–0	–	1–3
Spain	3–0	1–0	5–0	5–0	3–1	0–0	–

Group 4

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Romania	10	7	1	2	29	12	+17	15
Belgium	10	7	1	2	16	5	+11	15
Czechoslovakia	10	4	5	1	21	9	+12	13
Wales	10	5	2	3	19	12	+7	12
Cyprus	10	2	1	7	8	18	−10	5
Faroe Islands	10	0	0	10	1	38	−37	0


Belgium	–	1–0	0–0	3–0	1–0	2–0
Cyprus	0–3	–	1–1	3–1	1–4	0–1
Czechoslovakia	1–2	3–0	–	4–0	5–2	1–1
Faroe Islands	0–3	0–2	0–3	–	0–4	0–3
Romania	2–1	2–1	1–1	7–0	–	5–1
Wales	2–0	2–0	2–2	6–0	1–2	–

Group 5

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Greece	8	6	2	0	10	2	+8	14
Russia	8	5	2	1	15	4	+11	12
Iceland	8	3	2	3	7	6	+1	8
Hungary	8	2	1	5	6	11	−5	5
Luxembourg	8	0	1	7	2	17	−15	1
FR Yugoslavia	Suspended by FIFA[2]


Greece	–	0–0	1–0	2–0	1–0
Hungary	0–1	–	1–2	1–0	1–3
Iceland	0–1	2–0	–	1–0	1–1
Luxembourg	1–3	0–3	1–1	–	0–4
Russia	1–1	3–0	1–0	2–0	–

Group 6

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Sweden	10	6	3	1	19	8	+11	15
Bulgaria	10	6	2	2	19	10	+9	14
France	10	6	1	3	17	10	+7	13
Austria	10	3	2	5	15	16	−1	8
Finland	10	2	1	7	9	18	−9	5
Israel	10	1	3	6	10	27	−17	5


Austria	–	3–1	3–0	0–1	5–2	1–1
Bulgaria	4–1	–	2–0	2–0	2–2	1–1
Finland	3–1	0–3	–	0–2	0–0	0–1
France	2–0	1–2	2–1	–	2–3	2–1
Israel	1–1	0–2	1–3	0–4	–	1–3
Sweden	1–0	2–0	3–2	1–1	5–0	–

Qualified teams

The following 13 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup¹
Germany	Defending champions	8 July 1990	12 (1934, 1938, 1954², 1958², 1962², 1966², 1970², 1974², 1978², 1982², 1986², 1990²)
Italy	Group 1 winners	17 November 1993	12 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990)
Switzerland	Group 1 runners-up	17 November 1993	6 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966)
Norway	Group 2 winners	13 October 1993	1 (1938)
Netherlands	Group 2 runners-up	17 November 1993	5 (1934, 1938, 1974, 1978, 1990)
Spain	Group 3 winners	17 November 1993	8 (1934, 1950, 1962, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990)
Republic of Ireland	Group 3 runners-up	17 November 1993	1 (1990)
Romania	Group 4 winners	17 November 1993	5 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1970, 1990)
Belgium	Group 4 runners-up	17 November 1993	8 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1954, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990)
Greece	Group 5 winners	23 May 1993	0 (debut)
Russia	Group 5 runners-up	2 June 1993	7 (1958³, 1962³, 1966³, 1970³, 1982³, 1986³, 1990³)
Sweden	Group 6 winners	10 November 1993	8 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1958, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1990)
Bulgaria	Group 6 runners-up	17 November 1993	5 (1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1986)

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 Soviet Union.

Goalscorers

9 goals

Florin Răducioiu

8 goals

Ian Rush

7 goals

David Platt

Julio Salinas

Martin Dahlin

6 goals

Stéphane Chapuisat

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Jozef Chovanec (playing against Belgium)

Hlynur Birgisson (playing against Luxembourg)

Nicola Bacciocchi (playing against the Netherlands)

Notes

To date, this was the last time that England and France failed to qualify for a FIFA World Cup.

References

New York Times, 8 December 1991, Nations Lining Up for the Big Drawing
"History of the FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition (by year)" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 13 December 2011.

External links

Detailed Match Results at RSSSF
Complete Results at FIFA.com
The forgotten story of 17 November 1993, Rob Smyth, The Guardian – article about the last qualifying matches for World Cup 1994

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[1] New York Times, 8 December 1991, Nations Lining Up for the Big Drawing

[2] "History of the FIFA World Cup Preliminary Competition (by year)" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Retrieved 13 December 2011.

1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
AFC	First Round Final Round Japan 2–2 Iraq
CAF	First Round Final Round
CONCACAF	Caribbean Zone Central American Zone Second Round Final Round
CONMEBOL	Group 1 Argentina 0–5 Colombia Group 2
OFC	First Round Second Round
UEFA	Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6
Play-offs	CONCACAF v OFC OFC v CONMEBOL