UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying play-off

After the 1994 FIFA World Cup the Netherlands started he qualifying campaign for Euro 1996 under coach Dick Advocaat. In December, Advocaat moved to PSV Eindhoven, where he succeeded Kees Rijvers as head coach. In January 1995 48-year-old Guus Hiddink took charge of the national team. Under the new coach, the Netherlands finished second in Group 5, 1 point behind the Czech Republic, and tied at 20 points with Norway. The Netherlands had the better head-to-head against Norway, thus putting the Dutch in second place.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Czech Republic	10	6	3	1	21	6	+15	21	Qualify for final tournament
2	Netherlands	10	6	2	2	23	5	+18	20[lower-alpha 1]	Advance to play-off
3	Norway	10	6	2	2	17	7	+10	20[lower-alpha 1]
4	Belarus	10	3	2	5	8	13	−5	11
5	Luxembourg	10	3	1	6	3	21	−18	10
6	Malta	10	0	2	8	2	22	−20	2

The Republic of Ireland had a strong start to their group, when they won their opening three games, including a 4–0 win against Northern Ireland. The Republic's next game was also against Northern Ireland, although the result was a 1–1 draw. From that point onwards the Republic stuttered badly as injuries struck down key players such as Roy Keane, Andy Townsend, John Sheridan and Steve Staunton.[3] After beating the highly fancied Portugal, the Irish then endured an embarrassing 0–0 draw to Liechtenstein (this was Liechtenstein's only point in their ten matches), before losing twice to Austria, on both occasions by three goals to one. Although they defeated Latvia, Ireland needed to beat Portugal in Lisbon to qualify outright, but lost 3–0. The Republic of Ireland therefore finished second in Group 6, 6 points behind Portugal, and tied at 17 points with Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland had the better head-to-head against the North of Ireland, thus putting the Republic of Ireland in second place.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	10	7	2	1	29	7	+22	23	Qualify for final tournament
2	Republic of Ireland	10	5	2	3	17	11	+6	17[lower-alpha 1]	Advance to play-off
3	Northern Ireland	10	5	2	3	20	15	+5	17[lower-alpha 1]
4	Austria	10	5	1	4	29	14	+15	16
5	Latvia	10	4	0	6	11	20	−9	12
6	Liechtenstein	10	0	1	9	1	40	−39	1

The runners-up of each of the eight groups were placed in a table to decide which seven of them would qualify. The best six runners-up would qualify automatically, while the two worst would play-off on a neutral ground to determine the final qualifier. To determine the two worst runners-up, a comparison was made between all of them. Only matches played against teams that finished first, third and fourth were regarded. The Netherlands finished seventh in the table, while the Republic of Ireland finished eighth and last, therefore qualifying both countries to the play-off.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	4	Italy	6	4	1	1	12	4	+8	13	Qualify for final tournament
2	7	Bulgaria	6	4	0	2	14	8	+6	12
3	3	Turkey	6	3	2	1	11	8	+3	11
4	8	Scotland	6	3	2	1	5	2	+3	11
5	2	Denmark	6	3	2	1	9	7	+2	11
6	1	France	6	2	4	0	8	2	+6	10
7	5	Netherlands	6	2	2	2	6	5	+1	8	Advance to play-off
8	6	Republic of Ireland	6	2	1	3	8	10	−2	7

Dutch forward Patrick Kluivert opened the scoring with a low shot to the right corner after 29 minutes to put the Netherlands ahead. Kluivert then wrapped the match up with his second goal, lifting the ball over the advancing Alan Kelly with two minutes to go, giving the Netherlands a 2–0 win and sending them through to Euro 1996.[4]