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Listed below are the dates and results for the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for the European zone (UEFA).

A total of 50 UEFA teams entered the competition; Andorra, which joined FIFA and UEFA in November 1996 while the qualifiers were underway, could not enter. The European zone was allocated 15 places (out of 32) in the final tournament. France, the hosts, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition between 49 teams.

The 49 teams were divided into nine groups, four groups of six teams and five groups of five teams. The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. The runners-up would be ranked according to their records against the 1st, 3rd and 4th-placed team in their groups, and the team with the best record would also qualify. The other runners-up would advance to the UEFA Play-offs.

In the play-offs, the 8 teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would qualify.

First round

First round was group play. The draw was made on 12 December 1995, and was based on the November 1995 FIFA World Rankings.^[1][2]

The teams were divided into six pools as shown in table below (November 1995 rankings shown in brackets). The national teams which eventually qualified for the final tournament are presented in bold and the national teams who took part in the play-offs are presented in italic.

Summary

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6	Group 7	Group 8	Group 9
Denmark	England	Norway	Austria	Bulgaria	Spain	Netherlands	Romania	Germany
Croatia	Italy	Hungary	Scotland	Russia	Yugoslavia	Belgium	Republic of Ireland	Ukraine
Greece Bosnia and Herzegovina Slovenia	Poland Georgia Moldova	Finland Switzerland Azerbaijan	Sweden Latvia Estonia Belarus	Israel Cyprus Luxembourg	Czech Republic Slovakia Faroe Islands Malta	Turkey Wales San Marino	Lithuania Macedonia Iceland Liechtenstein	Portugal Armenia Northern Ireland Albania

Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Denmark 8 5 2 1 14 6 +8 17  Croatia 8 4 3 1 17 12 +5 15  Greece 8 4 2 2 11 4 +7 14  Bosnia and Herzegovina 8 3 0 5 9 14 −5 9  Slovenia 8 0 1 7 5 20 −15 1

Bosnia and Herzegovina  – 1–4 3–0 0–1 1–0 Croatia  3–2 – 1–1 1–1 3–3 Denmark  2–0 3–1 – 2–1 4–0 Greece  3–0 0–1 0–0 – 2–0 Slovenia  1–2 1–3 0–2 0–3 –

Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  England 8 6 1 1 15 2 +13 19  Italy 8 5 3 0 11 1 +10 18  Poland 8 3 1 4 10 12 −2 10  Georgia 8 3 1 4 7 9 −2 10  Moldova 8 0 0 8 2 21 −19 0

England  – 2–0 0–1 4–0 2–1 Georgia  0–2 – 0–0 2–0 3–0 Italy  0–0 1–0 – 3–0 3–0 Moldova  0–3 0–1 1–3 – 0–3 Poland  0–2 4–1 0–0 2–1 –

Group 3

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Norway 8 6 2 0 21 2 +19 20  Hungary 8 3 3 2 10 8 +2 12  Finland 8 3 2 3 11 12 −1 11   Switzerland 8 3 1 4 11 12 −1 10  Azerbaijan 8 1 0 7 3 22 −19 3

Azerbaijan  – 1–2 0–3 0–1 1–0 Finland  3–0 – 1–1 0–4 2–3 Hungary  3–1 1–0 – 1–1 1–1 Norway  5–0 1–1 3–0 – 5–0 Switzerland   5–0 1–2 1–0 0–1 –

Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Austria 10 8 1 1 17 4 +13 25  Scotland 10 7 2 1 15 3 +12 23  Sweden 10 7 0 3 16 9 +7 21  Latvia 10 3 1 6 10 14 −4 10  Estonia 10 1 1 8 4 16 −12 4  Belarus 10 1 1 8 5 21 −16 4

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

Group 5

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Bulgaria 8 6 0 2 18 9 +9 18  Russia 8 5 2 1 19 5 +14 17  Israel 8 4 1 3 9 7 +2 13  Cyprus 8 3 1 4 10 15 −5 10  Luxembourg 8 0 0 8 2 22 −20 0

Bulgaria  – 4–1 1–0 4–0 1–0 Cyprus  1–3 – 2–0 2–0 1–1 Israel  2–1 2–0 – 1–0 1–1 Luxembourg  1–2 1–3 0–3 – 0–4 Russia  4–2 4–0 2–0 3–0 –

Group 6

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Spain 10 8 2 0 26 6 +20 26  Yugoslavia 10 7 2 1 29 7 +22 23  Czech Republic 10 5 1 4 16 6 +10 16  Slovakia 10 5 1 4 18 14 +4 16  Faroe Islands 10 2 0 8 10 31 −21 6  Malta 10 0 0 10 2 37 −35 0

Czech Republic  – 2–0 6–0 3–0 0–0 1–2 Faroe Islands  0–2 – 2–1 1–2 2–6 1–8 Malta  0–1 1–2 – 0–2 0–3 0–5 Slovakia  2–1 3–0 6–0 – 1–2 1–1 Spain  1–0 3–1 4–0 4–1 – 2–0 Yugoslavia  1–0 3–1 6–0 2–0 1–1 –

Group 7

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Netherlands 8 6 1 1 26 4 +22 19  Belgium 8 6 0 2 20 11 +9 18  Turkey 8 4 2 2 21 9 +12 14  Wales 8 2 1 5 20 21 −1 7  San Marino 8 0 0 8 0 42 −42 0

Belgium  – 0–3 6–0 2–1 3–2 Netherlands  3–1 – 4–0 0–0 7–1 San Marino  0–3 0–6 – 0–5 0–5 Turkey  1–3 1–0 7–0 – 6–4 Wales  1–2 1–3 6–0 0–0 –

Group 8

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Romania 10 9 1 0 37 4 +33 28  Republic of Ireland 10 5 3 2 22 8 +14 18  Lithuania 10 5 2 3 11 8 +3 17  Macedonia 10 4 1 5 22 18 +4 13  Iceland 10 2 3 5 11 16 −5 9  Liechtenstein 10 0 0 10 3 52 −49 0

Iceland  – 4–0 0–0 1–1 2–4 0–4 Liechtenstein  0–4 – 0–2 1–11 0–5 1–8 Lithuania  2–0 2–1 – 2–0 1–2 0–1 Macedonia  1–0 3–0 1–2 – 3–2 0–3 Republic of Ireland  0–0 5–0 0–0 3–0 – 1–1 Romania  4–0 8–0 3–0 4–2 1–0 –

Group 9

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Germany 10 6 4 0 23 9 +14 22  Ukraine 10 6 2 2 10 6 +4 20  Portugal 10 5 4 1 12 4 +8 19  Armenia 10 1 5 4 8 17 −9 8  Northern Ireland 10 1 4 5 6 10 −4 7  Albania 10 1 1 8 7 20 −13 4

Albania  – 1–1 2–3 1–0 0–3 0–1 Armenia  3–0 – 1–5 0–0 0–0 0–2 Germany  4–3 4–0 – 1–1 1–1 2–0 Northern Ireland  2–0 1–1 1–3 – 0–0 0–1 Portugal  2–0 3–1 0–0 1–0 – 1–0 Ukraine  1–0 1–1 0–0 2–1 2–1 –

Ranking of second-placed teams

Record against the 1st, 3rd and 4th-placed team in their groups.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Scotland	6	4	1	1	8	2	+6	13
Italy	6	3	3	0	5	0	+5	12
Belgium	6	4	0	2	11	11	0	12
Russia	6	3	2	1	12	5	+7	11
Croatia	6	3	2	1	11	8	+3	11
Yugoslavia	6	3	2	1	7	5	+2	11
Republic of Ireland	6	2	2	2	8	6	+2	8
Ukraine	6	2	2	2	5	5	0	8
Hungary	6	1	3	2	4	7	−3	6

Play-offs

Matches

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Croatia	3–1	Ukraine	2–0	1–1
Russia	1–2	Italy	1–1	0–1
Republic of Ireland	2–3	Belgium	1–1	1–2
Hungary	1–12	Yugoslavia	1–7	0–5

Qualified teams

The following 15 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
France	Hosts	2 July 1992	9 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1954, 1958, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986)
Denmark	Group 1 winners	11 October 1997	1 (1986)
England	Group 2 winners	11 October 1997	10 (1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990)
Norway	Group 3 winners	6 September 1997	2 (1938, 1994)
Austria	Group 4 winners	11 October 1997	6 (1934, 1954, 1958, 1978, 1982, 1990)
Bulgaria	Group 5 winners	10 September 1997	6 (1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1986, 1994)
Spain	Group 6 winners	11 October 1997	9 (1934, 1950, 1962, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994)
Netherlands	Group 7 winners	11 October 1997	6 (1934, 1938, 1974, 1978, 1990, 1994)
Romania	Group 8 winners	18 August 1997	6 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1970, 1990, 1994)
Germany	Group 9 winners	11 October 1997	13 (1934, 1938, 19542, 19582, 19622, 19662, 19702, 19742, 19782, 19822, 19862, 19902, 1994)
Scotland	Best runner-up	11 October 1997	7 (1954, 1958, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990)
Croatia	Play-off winners	15 November 1997	0 (debut)
Italy	Play-off winners	15 November 1997	13 (1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994)
Belgium	Play-off winners	15 November 1997	9 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1954, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994)
Yugoslavia	Play-off winners	15 November 1997	8 (19303, 19503, 19543, 19583, 19623, 19743, 19823, 19903)

¹Bold 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 Yugoslavia.

Goalscorers

14 goals

9 goals

8 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal