1986 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Listed below are the dates and results for the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for the European zone (UEFA). For an overview of the qualification rounds, see the article 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification.

UEFA was allocated thirteen qualifying berths for the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and one place in a play-off, however Italy were the defending champions and qualified automatically, leaving 12.5 spots open for competition between 32 teams.

Europe's automatic qualifying berths were taken by Poland, West Germany, Portugal, England, Northern Ireland, France, Bulgaria, Hungary, Denmark, Soviet Union and Spain. Belgium and Scotland qualified through the UEFA Play off and UEFA / OFC Intercontinental Play-off respectively.

Format[edit]

The 32 teams were divided into 7 groups. The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The number of teams and spots for each group were as follows:

Groups 2, 3, 4 and 6 had 5 teams each. The group winners and runners-up would qualify.
Groups 1, 5 and 7 had 4 teams each.

The group winners would qualify. The runners-up of Groups 1 and 5 would advance to the UEFA Play-offs, while the runner-up of Group 7 would advance to the UEFA / OFC Intercontinental Play-off. In the play-offs, the 2 teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis, with the winner qualifying.

Group play[edit]

The draw for the qualifying groups took place in Zürich, Switzerland on 7 December 1983. During the draw teams were drawn from the 5 pots into the 7 groups. The seedings below were announced ten days before the draw.

Pot A	Pot B	Pot C	Pot D	Pot E
West Germany Poland France England Soviet Union Austria Spain	Northern Ireland Belgium Hungary Scotland Yugoslavia Czechoslovakia Denmark	Republic of Ireland Wales Netherlands Romania Sweden East Germany Greece	Bulgaria Portugal Switzerland Iceland Albania Turkey Cyprus	Norway Finland Malta Luxembourg

Summary[edit]

Group winners and four best runners-up qualified directly for 1986 FIFA World Cup

The remaining runners-up advanced to the play-offs

Other teams were eliminated

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6	Group 7
Poland	West Germany	England	France	Hungary	Denmark	Spain
Belgium	Portugal	Northern Ireland	Bulgaria	Netherlands	Soviet Union	Scotland
Albania Greece	Sweden Czechoslovakia Malta	Romania Finland Turkey	East Germany Yugoslavia Luxembourg	Austria Cyprus	Switzerland Republic of Ireland Norway	Wales Iceland

Key to colours in group tables
	Team qualifies for the World Cup
	Team advances to the play-off
	Team advances to the intercontinental play-off

Group 1[edit]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Poland	6	3	2	1	10	6	+4	8
Belgium	6	3	2	1	7	3	+4	8
Albania	6	1	2	3	6	9	−3	4
Greece	6	1	2	3	5	10	−5	4


Albania	–	2–0	1–1	0–1
Belgium	3–1	–	2–0	2–0
Greece	2–0	0–0	-	1–4
Poland	2–2	0–0	3–1	-

Group 2[edit]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
West Germany	8	5	2	1	22	9	+13	12
Portugal	8	5	0	3	12	10	+2	10
Sweden	8	4	1	3	14	9	+5	9
Czechoslovakia	8	3	2	3	11	12	−1	8
Malta	8	0	1	7	6	25	−19	1


Czechoslovakia	–	4–0	1–0	2–1	1–5
Malta	0–0	–	1–3	1–2	2–3
Portugal	2–1	3–2	-	1–3	1–2
Sweden	2–0	4–0	0–1	-	2–2
West Germany	2–2	6–0	0–1	2–0	-

Group 3[edit]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
England	8	4	4	0	21	2	+19	12
Northern Ireland	8	4	2	2	8	5	+3	10
Romania	8	3	3	2	12	7	+5	9
Finland	8	3	2	3	7	12	−5	8
Turkey	8	0	1	7	2	24	−22	1


England	–	5–0	0–0	1–1	5–0
Finland	1–1	–	1–0	1–1	1–0
Northern Ireland	0–1	2–1	-	3–2	2–0
Romania	0–0	2–0	0–1	-	3–0
Turkey	0–8	1–2	0–0	1–3	-

Group 4[edit]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
France	8	5	1	2	15	4	+11	11
Bulgaria	8	5	1	2	13	5	+8	11
East Germany	8	5	0	3	16	9	+7	10
Yugoslavia	8	3	2	3	7	8	−1	8
Luxembourg	8	0	0	8	2	27	−25	0


Bulgaria	–	1–0	2–0	4–0	2–1
East Germany	2–1	–	2–0	3–1	2–3
France	1–0	2–0	-	6–0	2–0
Luxembourg	1–3	0–5	0–4	-	0–1
Yugoslavia	0–0	1–2	0–0	1–0	-

Group 5[edit]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Hungary	6	5	0	1	12	4	+8	10
Netherlands	6	3	1	2	11	5	+6	7
Austria	6	3	1	2	9	8	+1	7
Cyprus	6	0	0	6	3	18	−15	0


Austria	–	4–0	0–3	1–0
Cyprus	1–2	–	1–2	0–1
Hungary	3–1	2–0	-	0–1
Netherlands	1–1	7–1	1–2	-

Group 6[edit]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Denmark	8	5	1	2	17	6	+11	11
Soviet Union	8	4	2	2	13	8	+5	10
Switzerland	8	2	4	2	5	10	−5	8
Republic of Ireland	8	2	2	4	5	10	−5	6
Norway	8	1	3	4	4	10	−6	5


Denmark	–	1–0	3–0	4–2	0–0
Norway	1–5	–	1–0	1–1	0–1
Republic of Ireland	1–4	0–0	-	1–0	3–0
Soviet Union	1–0	1–0	2–0	-	4–0
Switzerland	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–2	-

Group 7[edit]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Spain	6	4	0	2	9	8	+1	8
Scotland	6	3	1	2	8	4	+4	7
Wales	6	3	1	2	7	6	+1	7
Iceland	6	1	0	5	4	10	−6	2


Iceland	–	0–1	1–2	1–0
Scotland	3–0	–	3–1	0–1
Spain	2–1	1–0	-	3–0
Wales	2–1	1–1	3–0	-

UEFA play-off[edit]

16 October 1985	Belgium	1–0	Netherlands	Brussels, Belgium
	Vercauteren 20'	Report		Stadium: Constant Vanden Stock Stadium Attendance: 30,764 Referee: Pietro D'Elia (Italy)

20 November 1985	Netherlands	2–1 (2–2 agg.)	Belgium	Rotterdam, Netherlands
	Houtman 60' de Wit 72'	Report	Grün 85'	Stadium: de Kuip Attendance: 54,000 Referee: George Courtney (England)

The aggregate score was tied at 2–2, therefore Belgium qualified on away goals.

Inter-confederation play-offs[edit]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Scotland	2–0	Australia	2–0	0–0

Goalscorers[edit]

8 goals

Preben Elkjær Larsen

6 goals

Rainer Ernst

5 goals

Bryan Robson

Fernando Gomes

Oleh Protasov

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Nikos Pantziaras (playing against the Netherlands)
Guy Hellers (playing against Bulgaria)

Michel Valke (playing against Austria)
Frederico Rosa (playing against Malta)

Gino Iorgulescu (playing against Northern Ireland)
Andreas Ravelli (playing against Czechoslovakia)

External links[edit]

FIFA.com Reports
RSSSF Page
Results and scorers
UEFA Qualifier results with full game box scores at Scoreshelf.com

v t e 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification
AFC	First Round China v Hong Kong Second Round Final Round
CAF	First Round Second Round Third Round Final Round
CONCACAF	CONCACAF Championship qualifying
CONMEBOL	Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Play off
OFC	Round-Robin
UEFA	Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Wales v Scotland Play off
Play-offs	UEFA v OFC