2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The European Zone of qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup saw 53 teams competing for 13 places at the finals in Brazil. The qualification process started on 7 September 2012, over two months after the end of UEFA Euro 2012, and ended on 19 November 2013. There were nine winners of each qualifying group as well as the winners of four play-offs between group runners-up.

Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and Switzerland qualified in the first round by winning their groups. Croatia, France, Greece, and Portugal qualified via the second round play-offs.

Format

All 53 UEFA national teams entered qualification, aiming to secure one of the 13 European Zone slots for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The draw for the qualification groups was held at the World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 30 July 2011. The qualification format was the same as 2010. The teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five, with the nine group winners qualifying directly for the final tournament. The eight best runners-up (determined by records against the first-, third-, fourth- and fifth-placed teams in their groups to ensure equity between different groups) were drawn in two-legged play-offs that determined the remaining four qualifying nations.^[1]

Seeding

The July 2011 FIFA World Rankings were used to seed the teams. In consideration of the delicate political situations of the relationships between Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as relations between Russia and Georgia, UEFA requested that FIFA maintain the current UEFA policy not to draw these teams into the same qualification groups – although as Armenia and Azerbaijan were in the same pot they could not be drawn together anyway. The mechanism for keeping Russia and Georgia apart was confirmed by the FIFA Organising Committee on 29 July 2011.^[1]

Teams were allocated to seeding pots as follows (July 2011 FIFA Rankings shown in brackets; the countries which eventually qualified for the final tournament are presented in bold):^[2]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Spain (1) Netherlands (2) Germany (3) England (6) Portugal (7) Italy (8) Croatia (9) Norway (12) Greece (13)	France (15) Montenegro (17) Russia (18) Sweden (19) Denmark (21) Slovenia (22) Turkey (24) Serbia (27) Slovakia (29)	Switzerland (30) Israel (32) Republic of Ireland (33) Belgium (37) Czech Republic (38) Bosnia and Herzegovina (41) Belarus (42) Ukraine (45) Hungary (47)
Pot 4	Pot 5	Pot 6
Bulgaria (48) Romania (53) Georgia (57) Lithuania (58) Albania (59) Scotland (61) Northern Ireland (62) Austria (66) Poland (69)	Armenia (70) Finland (75) Estonia (79) Cyprus (80) Latvia (83) Moldova (85) Macedonia (96) Azerbaijan (111) Faroe Islands (112)	Wales (112) Liechtenstein (118) Iceland (121) Kazakhstan (126) Luxembourg (128) Malta (173) Andorra (203) San Marino (203)

First round

The matches were played between 7 September 2012 and 15 October 2013. An initial schedule that includes matches before this date was not ratified by FIFA.

Summary

Winner of each group qualified directly for the 2014 FIFA World Cup

The eight best runners-up among all nine groups advanced to the second round (play-offs)

Other teams were eliminated after the first round

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H	Group I
Belgium	Italy	Germany	Netherlands	Switzerland	Russia	Bosnia and Herzegovina	England	Spain
Croatia	Denmark	Sweden	Romania	Iceland	Portugal	Greece	Ukraine	France
Serbia Scotland Wales Macedonia	Czech Republic Bulgaria Armenia Malta	Austria Republic of Ireland Kazakhstan Faroe Islands	Hungary Turkey Estonia Andorra	Slovenia Norway Albania Cyprus	Israel Azerbaijan Northern Ireland Luxembourg	Slovakia Lithuania Latvia Liechtenstein	Montenegro Poland Moldova San Marino	Finland Georgia Belarus

Groups

Tie-breaking criteria

The ranking in each group is determined as follows:^[3]

a) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches;
b) goal difference in all group matches;
c) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.

If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings shall be determined as follows:

d) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
e) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
f) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned;
g) greater number of goals scored away from home between the teams concerned (if the tie is only between two teams)

Group A

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Belgium	10	8	2	0	18	4	+14	26
Croatia	10	5	2	3	12	9	+3	17
Serbia	10	4	2	4	18	11	+7	14
Scotland	10	3	2	5	8	12	−4	11
Wales	10	3	1	6	9	20	−11	10
Macedonia	10	2	1	7	7	16	−9	7


Belgium	—	1–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	1–1
Croatia	1–2	—	1–0	0–1	2–0	2–0
Macedonia	0–2	1–2	—	1–2	1–0	2–1
Scotland	0–2	2–0	1–1	—	0–0	1–2
Serbia	0–3	1–1	5–1	2–0	—	6–1
Wales	0–2	1–2	1–0	2–1	0–3	—

Group B

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Italy	10	6	4	0	19	9	+10	22
Denmark	10	4	4	2	17	12	+5	16
Czech Republic	10	4	3	3	13	9	+4	15
Bulgaria	10	3	4	3	14	9	+5	13
Armenia	10	4	1	5	12	13	−1	13
Malta	10	1	0	9	5	28	−23	3


Armenia	—	2–1	0–3	0–1	1–3	0–1
Bulgaria	1–0	—	0–1	1–1	2–2	6–0
Czech Republic	1–2	0–0	—	0–3	0–0	3–1
Denmark	0–4	1–1	0–0	—	2–2	6–0
Italy	2–2	1–0	2–1	3–1	—	2–0
Malta	0–1	1–2	1–4	1–2	0–2	—

Group C

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Germany	10	9	1	0	36	10	+26	28
Sweden	10	6	2	2	19	14	+5	20
Austria	10	5	2	3	20	10	+10	17
Republic of Ireland	10	4	2	4	16	17	−1	14
Kazakhstan	10	1	2	7	6	21	−15	5
Faroe Islands	10	0	1	9	4	29	−25	1


Austria	—	6–0	1–2	4–0	1–0	2–1
Faroe Islands	0–3	—	0–3	1–1	1–4	1–2
Germany	3–0	3–0	—	4–1	3–0	4–4
Kazakhstan	0–0	2–1	0–3	—	1–2	0–1
Republic of Ireland	2–2	3–0	1–6	3–1	—	1–2
Sweden	2–1	2–0	3–5	2–0	0–0	—

Group D

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Netherlands	10	9	1	0	34	5	+29	28
Romania	10	6	1	3	19	12	+7	19
Hungary	10	5	2	3	21	20	+1	17
Turkey	10	5	1	4	16	9	+7	16
Estonia	10	2	1	7	6	20	−14	7
Andorra	10	0	0	10	0	30	−30	0


Andorra	—	0–1	0–5	0–2	0–4	0–2
Estonia	2–0	—	0–1	2–2	0–2	0–2
Hungary	2–0	5–1	—	1–4	2–2	3–1
Netherlands	3–0	3–0	8–1	—	4–0	2–0
Romania	4–0	2–0	3–0	1–4	—	0–2
Turkey	5–0	3–0	1–1	0–2	0–1	—

Group E

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Switzerland	10	7	3	0	17	6	+11	24
Iceland	10	5	2	3	17	15	+2	17
Slovenia	10	5	0	5	14	11	+3	15
Norway	10	3	3	4	10	13	−3	12
Albania	10	3	2	5	9	11	−2	11
Cyprus	10	1	2	7	4	15	−11	5


Albania	—	3–1	1–2	1–1	1–0	1–2
Cyprus	0–0	—	1–0	1–3	0–2	0–0
Iceland	2–1	2–0	—	2–0	2–4	0–2
Norway	0–1	2–0	1–1	—	2–1	0–2
Slovenia	1–0	2–1	1–2	3–0	—	0–2
Switzerland	2–0	1–0	4–4	1–1	1–0	—

Group F

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Russia	10	7	1	2	20	5	+15	22
Portugal	10	6	3	1	20	9	+11	21
Israel	10	3	5	2	19	14	+5	14
Azerbaijan	10	1	6	3	7	11	−4	9
Northern Ireland	10	1	4	5	9	17	−8	7
Luxembourg	10	1	3	6	7	26	−19	6


Azerbaijan	—	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–2	1–1
Israel	1–1	—	3–0	1–1	3–3	0–4
Luxembourg	0–0	0–6	—	3–2	1–2	0–4
Northern Ireland	1–1	0–2	1–1	—	2–4	1–0
Portugal	3–0	1–1	3–0	1–1	—	1–0
Russia	1–0	3–1	4–1	2–0	1–0	—

Group G

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Bosnia and Herzegovina	10	8	1	1	30	6	+24	25
Greece	10	8	1	1	12	4	+8	25
Slovakia	10	3	4	3	11	10	+1	13
Lithuania	10	3	2	5	9	11	−2	11
Latvia	10	2	2	6	10	20	−10	8
Liechtenstein	10	0	2	8	4	25	−21	2


Bosnia and Herzegovina	—	3–1	4–1	4–1	3–0	0–1
Greece	0–0	—	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–0
Latvia	0–5	1–2	—	2–0	2–1	2–2
Liechtenstein	1–8	0–1	1–1	—	0–2	1–1
Lithuania	0–1	0–1	2–0	2–0	—	1–1
Slovakia	1–2	0–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	—

Group H

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
England	10	6	4	0	31	4	+27	22
Ukraine	10	6	3	1	28	4	+24	21
Montenegro	10	4	3	3	18	17	+1	15
Poland	10	3	4	3	18	12	+6	13
Moldova	10	3	2	5	12	17	−5	11
San Marino	10	0	0	10	1	54	−53	0


England	—	4–0	4–1	2–0	5–0	1–1
Moldova	0–5	—	0–1	1–1	3–0	0–0
Montenegro	1–1	2–5	—	2–2	3–0	0–4
Poland	1–1	2–0	1–1	—	5–0	1–3
San Marino	0–8	0–2	0–6	1–5	—	0–8
Ukraine	0–0	2–1	0–1	1–0	9–0	—

Group I

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Spain	8	6	2	0	14	3	+11	20
France	8	5	2	1	15	6	+9	17
Finland	8	2	3	3	5	9	−4	9
Georgia	8	1	2	5	3	10	−7	5
Belarus	8	1	1	6	7	16	−9	4


Belarus	—	1–1	2–4	2–0	0–4
Finland	1–0	—	0–1	1–1	0–2
France	3–1	3–0	—	3–1	0–1
Georgia	1–0	0–1	0–0	—	0–1
Spain	2–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	—

Ranking of second-placed teams

Because one group had one team fewer than the others, matches against the last-placed team in each of the six-team groups were not included in this ranking. As a result, eight matches played by each team counted for the purposes of the second-placed table.

The eight best runners-ups determined by the following parameters in this order:

Highest number of points
Goal difference
Highest number of goals scored

Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
G	Greece	8	6	1	1	9	4	+5	19
I	France	8	5	2	1	15	6	+9	17
F	Portugal	8	4	3	1	15	8	+7	15
H	Ukraine	8	4	3	1	11	4	+7	15
C	Sweden	8	4	2	2	15	13	+2	14
E	Iceland	8	4	2	2	15	14	+1	14
D	Romania	8	4	1	3	11	12	−1	13
A	Croatia	8	3	2	3	9	8	+1	11
B	Denmark	8	2	4	2	9	11	−2	10

Second round

The eight best group runners-up contested the second round, where they were paired into four two-legged (home-and-away) fixtures. The four winners qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Seeding and draw

The second round draw took place at the headquarters of FIFA in Zurich on 21 October 2013.^[4] The October 2013 FIFA World Rankings were used to decide which of the teams would be seeded (shown below in brackets).^[4]

The following teams participated in the second round:^[5]^[6]

Pot 1	Pot 2
Portugal (14) Greece (15) Croatia (18) Ukraine (20)	France (21) Sweden (25) Romania (29) Iceland (46)

Matches

The matches were played on 15 and 19 November 2013.^[1]^[7]

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Portugal	4–2	Sweden	1–0	3–2
Ukraine	2–3	France	2–0	0–3
Greece	4–2	Romania	3–1	1–1
Iceland	0–2	Croatia	0–0	0–2

Attendance

Team	Highest	Lowest	Average
Group A	47,369	6,500	26,869
Group B	37,027	3,517	18,573
Group C	72,369	4,300	30,007
Group D	53,329	723	26,686
Group E	30,712	1,600	10,583
Group F	54,212	1,324	23,127
Group G	26,211	1,112	9,150
Group H	86,645	736	31,559
Group I	78,329	12,607	38,985

Discipline

In the qualification tournament, a player would be suspended for the subsequent match in the competition for either getting red card or accumulating two yellow cards in two different matches. UEFA's Control and Disciplinary body has the ability to increase the automatic one match ban for a red card (e.g., for violent conduct). Single yellow card cautions would be erased prior to the play-off portion, and would not carry over. Single yellow cards and suspensions for yellow card accumulations do not carry over to the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament matches.^[8] The following players were suspended during the final tournament – for one or more games – as a result of red cards or yellow card accumulations:

Player	Offences	Suspensions
Keith Andrews	UEFA Euro 2012 v Italy	Group C v Kazakhstan
Roman Berezovsky	UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying v Republic of Ireland	Group B v Malta
James Collins	v Belgium	Group A v Serbia
Marc Vales	v Hungary	Group D v Romania
Tranquillo Barnetta	v Slovenia	Group E v Albania
Viktor Pečovský	v Lithuania	Group G v Liechtenstein
Tadas Labukas	v Slovakia	Group G v Greece
Savo Pavićević	v Poland	Group H v San Marino
Ludovic Obraniak	v Montenegro	Group H v Moldova
Svetoslav Dyakov	v Armenia	Group B v Denmark
Gevorg Ghazaryan	v Bulgaria	Group B v Italy
Marcos Pizzelli	v Bulgaria	Group B v Italy
Enar Jääger	v Turkey	Group D v Hungary
Sölvi Ottesen	v Cyprus	Group E v Albania
Steven Gerrard	v Ukraine	Group H v San Marino
Alexei Eremenko	v Georgia	Group I v Spain
Ivan Bandalovski	v Denmark	Group B v Czech Republic
Boštjan Cesar	v Cyprus	Group E v Albania
Daniel Kaufmann	v Latvia	Group G v Latvia
Nenad Tomović	v Macedonia	Group A v Croatia
Pablo Osvaldo	v Denmark	Group B v Malta
Andi Lila	v Norway	Group E v Norway
Gerard Piqué	2013 FIFA Confederations Cup v Brazil	Group I v Finland
Savo Pavicevic	v Ukraine	Group H v Poland
Vladimir Volkov	v Ukraine	Group H v Poland
Roman Zozulia	v Montenegro	Group H v San Marino
Mario Balotelli	v Czech Republic	Group B v Bulgaria
Andreas Granqvist	v Faroe Islands	Group C v Republic of Ireland
Josip Šimunić	v Serbia	Group A v Belgium
Josip Šimunić	v Serbia	Group A v Scotland

Goalscorers

There were 749 goals in 268 matches, for an average of 2.79 goals per match.

11 goals

Robin van Persie

10 goals

Edin Džeko

8 goals

Cristiano Ronaldo

Zlatan Ibrahimović

7 goals

Wayne Rooney

6 goals

Hélder Postiga

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Ildefons Lima (playing against Hungary)
Igor Shitov (playing against Finland)
Ragnar Klavan (playing against Hungary)
Joona Toivio (playing against France)
Pól Jóhannus Justinussen (playing against Ireland)

Vasilis Torosidis (playing against Romania)
Szilárd Devecseri (playing against Netherlands)
Dmitriy Shomko (playing against Ireland)
Ryan Camilleri (playing against Denmark)

Branko Bošković (playing against England)
Kjetil Waehler (playing against Slovenia)
Alessandro Della Valle (playing against England)
Martin Škrtel (playing against Greece)

References

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External links

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v t e 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
AFC	First Round Second Round Third Round Fourth Round Fifth Round (play-off for 5th place)
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