UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying

Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2000 final tournament, took place throughout 1998 and 1999. Forty-nine teams were divided into nine groups. All teams played against each other, within their groups, in a home-and-away basis. The winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified automatically for the final tournament. The rest of the runners-up played an additional set of playoff matches amongst each other.

Belgium and the Netherlands qualified automatically as co-hosts of the event.

Qualification seeding

  Qualified — directly

  Qualified — after Play offs

  Did not qualify — Play offs

  Did not qualify — First Round

  Did not enter

  Not a UEFA member

The draw was made on 18 January 1998, in Ghent, Belgium. Germany were seeded first as holders. The other seedings were determined by points per game in the qualifiers for 1996 European Championship and the 1998 World Cup. Other points to note:

• France did not have to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup as hosts. Only their record in UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying was used.
• England did not have to qualify for UEFA Euro 1996 as hosts. Only their record in World Cup 1998 was used.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina had never competed in the European Championships, so only their World Cup record was used.
• FR Yugoslavia were banned from UEFA Euro 1996, so only their World Cup record was used.
• This was the first qualifying competition for Andorra.

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

Summary

  Winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified directly for the UEFA Euro 2000

  The Runners-up advanced to the second round (play-offs)

  Other teams were eliminated after the first round

Hosts

• Belgium
• Netherlands

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

Groups

Group 1

Main article: UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying Group 1

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Italy 8 4 3 1 13 5 +8 15 Denmark 8 4 2 2 11 8 +3 14 Switzerland 8 4 2 2 9 5 +4 14 Wales 8 3 0 5 7 16 −9 9 Belarus 8 0 3 5 4 10 −6 3

Belarus – 0–0 0–0 0–1 1–2 Denmark 1–0 – 1–2 2–1 1–2 Italy 1–1 2–3 – 2–0 4–0 Switzerland 2–0 1–1 0–0 – 2–0 Wales 3–2 0–2 0–2 0–2 –

Group 2

Main article: UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying Group 2

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Norway 10 8 1 1 21 9 +12 25 Slovenia 10 5 2 3 12 14 −2 17 Greece 10 4 3 3 13 8 +5 15 Latvia 10 3 4 3 13 12 +1 13 Albania 10 1 4 5 8 14 −6 7 Georgia 10 1 2 7 8 18 −10 5

Albania – 2–1 0–0 3–3 1–2 0–1 Georgia 1–0 – 1–2 2–2 1–4 1–1 Greece 2–0 3–0 – 1–2 0–2 2–2 Latvia 0–0 1–0 0–0 – 1–2 1–2 Norway 2–2 1–0 1–0 1–3 – 4–0 Slovenia 2–0 2–1 0–3 1–0 1–2 –

Group 3

Main article: UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying Group 3

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Germany 8 6 1 1 20 4 +16 19 Turkey 8 5 2 1 15 6 +9 17 Finland 8 3 1 4 13 13 +0 10 Northern Ireland 8 1 2 5 4 19 −15 5 Moldova 8 0 4 4 7 17 −10 4

Finland – 1–2 3–2 4–1 2–4 Germany 2–0 – 6–1 4–0 0–0 Moldova 0–0 1–3 – 0–0 1–1 Northern Ireland 1–0 0–3 2–2 – 0–3 Turkey 1–3 1–0 2–0 3–0 –

Group 4

Main article: UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying Group 4

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts France 10 6 3 1 17 10 +7 21 Ukraine 10 5 5 0 14 4 +10 20 Russia 10 6 1 3 22 12 +10 19 Iceland 10 4 3 3 12 7 +5 15 Armenia 10 2 2 6 8 15 −7 8 Andorra 10 0 0 10 3 28 −25 0

Andorra – 0–3 0–1 0–2 1–2 0–2 Armenia 3–1 – 2–3 0–0 0–3 0–0 France 2–0 2–0 – 3–2 2–3 0–0 Iceland 3–0 2–0 1–1 – 1–0 0–1 Russia 6–1 2–0 2–3 1–0 – 1–1 Ukraine 4–0 2–0 0–0 1–1 3–2 –

Group 5

Main article: UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying Group 5

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Sweden 8 7 1 0 10 1 +9 22 England 8 3 4 1 14 4 +10 13 Poland 8 4 1 3 12 8 +4 13 Bulgaria 8 2 2 4 6 8 −2 8 Luxembourg 8 0 0 8 2 23 −21 0

Bulgaria – 1–1 3–0 0–3 0–1 England 0–0 – 6–0 3–1 0–0 Luxembourg 0–2 0–3 – 2–3 0–1 Poland 2–0 0–0 3–0 – 0–1 Sweden 1–0 2–1 2–0 2–0 –

Group 6

Main article: UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying Group 6

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Spain 8 7 0 1 42 5 +37 21 Israel 8 4 1 3 25 9 +16 13 Austria 8 4 1 3 19 20 −1 13 Cyprus 8 4 0 4 12 21 −9 12 San Marino 8 0 0 8 1 44 −43 0

Austria – 3–1 1–1 7–0 1–3 Cyprus 0–3 – 3–2 4–0 3–2 Israel 5–0 3–0 – 8–0 1–2 San Marino 1–4 0–1 0–5 – 0–6 Spain 9–0 8–0 3–0 9–0 –

Group 7

Main article: UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying Group 7

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Romania 10 7 3 0 25 3 +22 24 Portugal 10 7 2 1 32 4 +28 23 Slovakia 10 5 2 3 12 9 +3 17 Hungary 10 3 3 4 14 10 +4 12 Azerbaijan 10 1 1 8 6 26 −20 4 Liechtenstein 10 1 1 8 2 39 −37 4

Azerbaijan – 0–4 4–0 1–1 0–1 0–1 Hungary 3–0 – 5–0 1–3 1–1 0–1 Liechtenstein 2–1 0–0 – 0–5 0–3 0–4 Portugal 7–0 3–0 8–0 – 0–1 1–0 Romania 4–0 2–0 7–0 1–1 – 0–0 Slovakia 3–0 0–0 2–0 0–3 1–5 –

Group 8

Main article: UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying Group 8

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Yugoslavia 8 5 2 1 18 8 +10 17 Republic of Ireland 8 5 1 2 14 6 +8 16 Croatia 8 4 3 1 13 9 +4 15 Macedonia 8 2 2 4 13 14 −1 8 Malta 8 0 0 8 6 27 −21 0

Croatia — 3–2 2–1 1–0 2–2 Macedonia 1–1 — 4–0 1–1 2–4 Malta 1–4 1–2 — 2–3 0–3 Republic of Ireland 2–0 1–0 5–0 — 2–1 Yugoslavia 0–0 3–1 4–1 1–0 —

Group 9

Main article: UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying Group 9

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Czech Republic 10 10 0 0 26 5 +21 30 Scotland 10 5 3 2 15 10 +5 18 Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 3 2 5 14 17 −3 11 Lithuania 10 3 2 5 8 16 −8 11 Estonia 10 3 2 5 15 17 −2 11 Faroe Islands 10 0 3 7 4 17 −13 3

Bosnia and Herzegovina – 1–3 1–1 1–0 2–0 1–2 Czech Republic 3–0 – 4–1 2–0 2–0 3–2 Estonia 1–4 0–2 – 5–0 1–2 0–0 Faroe Islands 2–2 0–1 0–2 – 0–1 1–1 Lithuania 4–2 0–4 1–2 0–0 – 0–0 Scotland 1–0 1–2 3–2 2–1 3–0 –

Best runner-up

The best runner-up of the entire group phase qualified automatically for the final tournament. To determine the best runner-up, a comparison was made between all of them. Only matches played against teams that finished first, third and fourth were regarded. Matches played against fifth and sixth placed teams were discarded, because some groups had more teams than others. After the best runner-up was found, all the others (eight of them) entered a random playoff to determine four more teams to qualify.

Legend
Country that advanced to the final tournament
Countries that advanced to the play-offs

Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
7	Portugal	6	4	1	1	11	3	+8	13
3	Turkey	6	4	1	1	12	5	+7	13
9	Scotland	6	3	1	2	9	6	+3	10
1	Denmark	6	3	1	2	10	8	+2	10
8	Republic of Ireland	6	3	1	2	6	4	+2	10
4	Ukraine	6	2	4	0	6	4	+2	10
6	Israel	6	2	1	3	12	9	+3	7
5	England	6	1	4	1	5	4	+1	7
2	Slovenia	6	2	1	3	6	12	−6	7

Portugal qualified automatically as best runner-up, beating Turkey on goal difference.

Play-offs

Main article: UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying play-offs

The remaining eight runners-up entered a random playoff, disputed in two legs, home and away. Four more teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Scotland	1–2	England	0–2	1–0
Israel	0–8	Denmark	0–5	0–3
Slovenia	3–2	Ukraine	2–1	1–1
Republic of Ireland	1–1 (a)	Turkey	1–1	0–0

Qualified teams

4

Top goalscorers

11 goals

• Raúl

9 goals

• Zlatko Zahovič

8 goals

• João Pinto