2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Listed below are the dates and results for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for UEFA teams. A total of 51 teams took part, divided in 8 Groups - five groups of 6 teams each and three groups of 7 teams each - competing for 13 places in the World Cup. Germany, the hosts, were already qualified, for a total of 14 European places in the tournament.

The teams in each group would play against each other in a home-and-away basis. The team with most points in each group would qualify to the World Cup. The runners-up would be ranked. For the sake of fairness, in groups with 7 teams, results against the 7th placed team were ignored. The two best ranked runners-up would also qualify to the World Cup. The other six runners-up were drawn into three home-and-away knock-out matches, winners of those matches also qualifying.

The race to join hosts Germany at the 2006 FIFA World Cup featured an unlikely winner in Europe where Ukraine became the first team to qualify, having finished above Turkey, Denmark and Greece in arguably the continent's toughest qualifying group.

If first-time finalists Ukraine caused a surprise, elsewhere many of the usual suspects were prominent. The Netherlands, Portugal, France, Italy and England all won their groups, although in the case of the French and English only after a stumble or two along the way.

For this edition, three British teams were drawn in the same group: England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the only one not in the same group being Scotland. This meant that there were to be at least 6 British derbies played. One of those most talked about by the press was the fixture between England and Wales, as it was to be the first(and to date only) time childhood friends and Manchester United teammates Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville played against each other in a competitive fixture.

One of the big shocks also included reigning European Champions Greece failing to qualify for the tournament finishing fourth in group 2 featuring Turkey, Denmark, and Ukraine. Another idiosyncrasy was Israel finishing unbeaten (in a tough group containing France, Switzerland and the Republic Of Ireland) yet coming third in the group and failing to even make the play-offs.

Serbia and Montenegro and Croatia also advanced to Germany at the head of their sections, the former forcing Spain into the play-offs in the process. Besides the eight group winners, two teams progressed automatically as best runners-up, namely Poland and Sweden while the play-offs offered a second chance to six others.

Tiebreakers

Group 1

August 18, 2004, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia - fb|MKD 3 - 0 fb-rt|ARM

August 18, 2004, Bucharest, Romania - fb|ROU 2 - 1 fb-rt|FIN

September 4, 2004, Craiova, Romania - fb|ROU 2 - 1 fb-rt|MKD

September 4, 2004, Tampere, Finland - fb|FIN 3 - 0 fb-rt|AND

September 8, 2004, Amsterdam, Netherlands - fb|NED 2 - 0 fb-rt|CZE

September 8, 2004, Yerevan, Armenia - fb|ARM 0 - 2 fb-rt|FIN

September 8, 2004, Andorra la Vella, Andorra - fb|AND 1 - 5 fb-rt|ROU

October 9, 2004, Prague, Czech Republic - fb|CZE 1 - 0 fb-rt|ROU

October 9, 2004, Tampere, Finland - fb|FIN 3 - 1 fb-rt|ARM

October 9, 2004, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia - fb|MKD 2 - 2 fb-rt|NED

October 13, 2004, Andorra la Vella, Andorra - fb|AND 1 - 0 fb-rt|MKD

October 13, 2004, Amsterdam, Netherlands - fb|NED 3 - 1 fb-rt|FIN

October 13, 2004, Yerevan, Armenia - fb|ARM 0 - 3 fb-rt|CZE

November 17, 2004, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia - fb|MKD 0 - 2 fb-rt|CZE

November 17, 2004, Yerevan, Armenia - fb|ARM 1 - 1 fb-rt|ROU

November 17, 2004, Barcelona, Spain - fb|AND 0 - 3 fb-rt|NED

February 9, 2005, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia - fb|MKD 0 - 0 fb-rt|AND

March 26, 2005, Bucharest, Romania - fb|ROU 0 - 2 fb-rt|NED

March 26, 2005, Teplice, Czech Republic - fb|CZE 4 - 3 fb-rt|FIN

March 26, 2005, Yerevan, Armenia - fb|ARM 2 - 1 fb-rt|AND

March 30, 2005, Eindhoven, Netherlands - fb|NED 2 - 0 fb-rt|ARM

March 30, 2005, Andorra la Vella, Andorra - fb|AND 0 - 4 fb-rt|CZE

March 30, 2005, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia - fb|MKD 1 - 2 fb-rt|ROU

June 4, 2005, Rotterdam, Netherlands - fb|NED 2 - 0 fb-rt|ROU

June 4, 2005, Liberec, Czech Republic - fb|CZE 8 - 1 fb-rt|AND

June 4, 2005, Yerevan, Armenia - fb|ARM 1 - 2 fb-rt|MKD

June 8, 2005, Helsinki, Finland - fb|FIN 0 - 4 fb-rt|NED

June 8, 2005, Teplice, Czech Republic - fb|CZE 6 - 1 fb-rt|MKD

June 8, 2005, Constanţa, Romania - fb|ROU 3 - 0 fb-rt|ARM

August 17, 2005, Constanţa, Romania - fb|ROU 2 - 0 fb-rt|AND

August 17, 2005, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia - fb|MKD 0 - 3 fb-rt|FIN

September 3, 2005, Yerevan, Armenia - fb|ARM 0 - 1 fb-rt|NED

September 3, 2005, Constanţa, Romania - fb|ROU 2 - 0 fb-rt|CZE

September 3, 2005, Andorra la Vella, Andorra - fb|AND 0 - 0 fb-rt|FIN

September 7, 2005, Eindhoven, Netherlands - fb|NED 4 - 0 fb-rt|AND

September 7, 2005, Olomouc, Czech Republic - fb|CZE 4 - 1 fb-rt|ARM

September 7, 2005, Tampere, Finland - fb|FIN 5 - 1 fb-rt|MKD

October 8, 2005, Prague, Czech Republic - fb|CZE 0 - 2 fb-rt|NED

October 8, 2005, Helsinki, Finland - fb|FIN 0 - 1 fb-rt|ROU

October 12, 2005, Helsinki, Finland - fb|FIN 0 - 3 fb-rt|CZE

October 12, 2005, Amsterdam, Netherlands - fb|NED 0 - 0 fb-rt|MKD

October 12, 2005, Andorra la Vella, Andorra - fb|AND 0 - 3 fb-rt|ARM

Group 2

September 4, 2004, Copenhagen, Denmark - fb|DEN 1 – 1 fb-rt|UKR

September 4, 2004, Trabzon, Turkey - fb|TUR 1 – 1 fb-rt|GEO

September 4, 2004, Tirana, Albania - fb|ALB 2 – 1 fb-rt|GRE

September 8, 2004, Piraeus, Greece - fb|GRE 0 – 0 fb-rt|TUR

September 8, 2004, Almaty, Kazakhstan - fb|KAZ 1 – 2 fb-rt|UKR

September 8, 2004, Tbilisi, Georgia - fb|GEO 2 – 0 fb-rt|ALB

October 9, 2004, Istanbul, Turkey - fb|TUR 4 – 0 fb-rt|KAZ

October 9, 2004, Tirana, Albania - fb|ALB 0 – 2 fb-rt|DEN

October 9, 2004, Kiev, Ukraine - fb|UKR 1 – 1 fb-rt|GRE

October 13, 2004, Lviv, Ukraine - fb|UKR 2 – 0 fb-rt|GEO

October 13, 2004, Almaty, Kazakhstan - fb|KAZ 0 – 1 fb-rt|ALB

October 13, 2004, Copenhagen, Denmark - fb|DEN 1 – 1 fb-rt|TUR

November 17, 2004, Piraeus, Greece - fb|GRE 3 – 1 fb-rt|KAZ

November 17, 2004, Tbilisi, Georgia - fb|GEO 2 – 2 fb-rt|DEN

November 17, 2004, Istanbul, Turkey - fb|TUR 0 – 3 fb-rt|UKR

February 9, 2005, Tirana, Albania - fb|ALB 0 – 2 fb-rt|UKR

February 9, 2005, Piraeus, Greece - fb|GRE 2 – 1 fb-rt|DEN

March 26, 2005, Istanbul, Turkey - fb|TUR 2 – 0 fb-rt|ALB

March 26, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark - fb|DEN 3 – 0 fb-rt|KAZ

March 26, 2005, Tbilisi, Georgia - fb|GEO 1 – 3 fb-rt|GRE

March 30, 2005, Piraeus, Greece - fb|GRE 2 – 0 fb-rt|ALB

March 30, 2005, Kiev, Ukraine - fb|UKR 1 – 0 fb-rt|DEN

March 30, 2005, Tbilisi, Georgia - fb|GEO 2 – 5 fb-rt|TUR

June 4, 2005, Kiev, Ukraine - fb|UKR 2 – 0 fb-rt|KAZ

June 4, 2005, Tirana, Albania - fb|ALB 3 – 2 fb-rt|GEO

June 4, 2005, Istanbul, Turkey - fb|TUR 0 – 0 fb-rt|GRE

June 8, 2005, Almaty, Kazakhstan - fb|KAZ 0 – 6 fb-rt|TUR

June 8, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark - fb|DEN 3 – 1 fb-rt|ALB

June 8, 2005, Piraeus, Greece - fb|GRE 0 – 1 fb-rt|UKR

August 17, 2005, Almaty, Kazakhstan - fb|KAZ 1 – 2 fb-rt|GEO

September 3, 2005, Tbilisi, Georgia - fb|GEO 1 – 1 fb-rt|UKR

September 3, 2005, Istanbul, Turkey - fb|TUR 2 – 2 fb-rt|DEN

September 3, 2005, Tirana, Albania - fb|ALB 2 – 1 fb-rt|KAZ

September 7, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark - fb|DEN 6 – 1 fb-rt|GEO

September 7, 2005, Almaty, Kazakhstan - fb|KAZ 1 – 2 fb-rt|GRE

September 7, 2005, Kiev, Ukraine - fb|UKR 0 – 1 fb-rt|TUR

October 8, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark - fb|DEN 1 – 0 fb-rt|GRE

October 8, 2005, Tbilisi, Georgia - fb|GEO 0 – 0 fb-rt|KAZ

October 8, 2005, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine - fb|UKR 2 – 2 fb-rt|ALB

October 12, 2005, Piraeus, Greece - fb|GRE 1 – 0 fb-rt|GEO

October 12, 2005, Almaty, Kazakhstan - fb|KAZ 1 – 2 fb-rt|DEN

October 12, 2005, Tirana, Albania - fb|ALB 0 – 1 fb-rt|TUR

France qualified. "Switzerland" advanced to the UEFA Play-offs (see ranking of runners-up).

Group 5

September 4, 2004, Celje, Slovenia - fb|SVN 3 – 0 fb-rt|MDA

September 4, 2004, Palermo, Italy - fb|ITA 2 – 1 fb-rt|NOR

September 8, 2004, Chişinău, Moldova - fb|MDA 0 – 1 fb-rt|ITA

September 8, 2004, Oslo, Norway - fb|NOR 1 – 1 fb-rt|BLR

September 8, 2004, Glasgow, Scotland - fb|SCO 0 – 0 fb-rt|SVN

October 9, 2004, Glasgow, Scotland - fb|SCO 0 – 1 fb-rt|NOR

October 9, 2004, Minsk, Belarus - fb|BLR 4 – 0 fb-rt|MDA

October 9, 2004, Celje, Slovenia - fb|SVN 1 – 0 fb-rt|ITA

October 13, 2004, Parma, Italy - fb|ITA 4 – 3 fb-rt|BLR

October 13, 2004, Oslo, Norway - fb|NOR 3 – 0 fb-rt|SVN

October 13, 2004, Chişinău, Moldova - fb|MDA 1 – 1 fb-rt|SCO

March 26, 2005, Milan, Italy - fb|ITA 2 – 0 fb-rt|SCO

March 30, 2005, Chişinău, Moldova - fb|MDA 0 – 0 fb-rt|NOR

March 30, 2005, Celje, Slovenia - fb|SVN 1 – 1 fb-rt|BLR

June 4, 2005, Oslo, Norway - fb|NOR 0 – 0 fb-rt|ITA

June 4, 2005, Minsk, Belarus - fb|BLR 1 – 1 fb-rt|SVN

June 4, 2005, Glasgow, Scotland - fb|SCO 2 – 0 fb-rt|MDA

June 8, 2005, Minsk, Belarus - fb|BLR 0 – 0 fb-rt|SCO

September 3, 2005, Glasgow, Scotland - fb|SCO 1 – 1 fb-rt|ITA

September 3, 2005, Celje, Slovenia - fb|SVN 2 – 3 fb-rt|NOR

September 3, 2005, Chişinău, Moldova - fb|MDA 2 – 0 fb-rt|BLR

September 7, 2005, Chişinău, Moldova - fb|MDA 1 – 2 fb-rt|SVN

September 7, 2005, Minsk, Belarus - fb|BLR 1 – 4 fb-rt|ITA

September 7, 2005, Oslo, Norway - fb|NOR 1 – 2 fb-rt|SCO

October 8, 2005, Oslo, Norway - fb|NOR 1 – 0 fb-rt|MDA

October 8, 2005, Glasgow, Scotland - fb|SCO 0 – 1 fb-rt|BLR

October 8, 2005, Palermo, Italy - fb|ITA 1 – 0 fb-rt|SVN

October 12, 2005, Minsk, Belarus - fb|BLR 0 – 1 fb-rt|NOR

October 12, 2005, Lecce, Italy - fb|ITA 2 – 1 fb-rt|MDA

October 12, 2005, Celje, Slovenia - fb|SVN 0 – 3 fb-rt|SCO

Serbia and Montenegro qualified. "Spain" advanced to the UEFA Play-offs (see ranking of runners-up).

Group 8

September 4, 2004, Ta' Qali, Malta - fb|MLT 0 – 7 fb-rt|SWE

September 4, 2004, Zagreb, Croatia - fb|CRO 3 – 0 fb-rt|HUN

September 4, 2004, Reykjavík, Iceland - fb|ISL 1 – 3 fb-rt|BUL

September 8, 2004, Gothenburg, Sweden - fb|SWE 0 – 1 fb-rt|CRO

September 8, 2004, Budapest, Hungary - fb|HUN 3 – 2 fb-rt|ISL

October 9, 2004, Zagreb, Croatia - fb|CRO 2 – 2 fb-rt|BUL

October 9, 2004, Ta' Qali, Malta - fb|MLT 0 – 0 fb-rt|ISL

October 9, 2004, Stockholm, Sweden - fb|SWE 3 – 0 fb-rt|HUN

October 13, 2004, Reykjavík, Iceland - fb|ISL 1 – 4 fb-rt|SWE

October 13, 2004, Sofia, Bulgaria - fb|BUL 4 – 1 fb-rt|MLT

November 17, 2004, Ta' Qali, Malta - fb|MLT 0 – 2 fb-rt|HUN

March 26, 2005, Sofia, Bulgaria - fb|BUL 0 – 3 fb-rt|SWE

March 26, 2005, Zagreb, Croatia - fb|CRO 4 – 0 fb-rt|ISL

March 30, 2005, Zagreb, Croatia - fb|CRO 3 – 0 fb-rt|MLT

March 30, 2005, Budapest, Hungary - fb|HUN 1 – 1 fb-rt|BUL

June 4, 2005, Gothenburg, Sweden - fb|SWE 6 – 0 fb-rt|MLT

June 4, 2005, Sofia, Bulgaria - fb|BUL 1 – 3 fb-rt|CRO

June 4, 2005, Reykjavík, Iceland - fb|ISL 2 – 3 fb-rt|HUN

June 8, 2005, Reykjavík, Iceland - fb|ISL 4 – 1 fb-rt|MLT

September 3, 2005, Stockholm, Sweden - fb|SWE 3 – 0 fb-rt|BUL

September 3, 2005, Reykjavík, Iceland - fb|ISL 1 – 3 fb-rt|CRO

September 3, 2005, Budapest, Hungary - fb|HUN 4 – 0 fb-rt|MLT

September 7, 2005, Budapest, Hungary - fb|HUN 0 – 1 fb-rt|SWE

September 7, 2005, Ta' Qali, Malta - fb|MLT 1 – 1 fb-rt|CRO

September 7, 2005, Sofia, Bulgaria - fb|BUL 3 – 2 fb-rt|ISL

October 8, 2005, Sofia, Bulgaria - fb|BUL 2 – 0 fb-rt|HUN

October 8, 2005, Zagreb, Croatia - fb|CRO 1 – 0 fb-rt|SWE

October 12, 2005, Stockholm, Sweden - fb|SWE 3 – 1 fb-rt|ISL

October 12, 2005, Budapest, Hungary - fb|HUN 0 – 0 fb-rt|CRO

October 12, 2005, Ta' Qali, Malta - fb|MLT 1 – 1 fb-rt|BUL

Croatia qualified. Sweden also qualified as one of the two best runners-up (see ranking of runners-up).

Play-offs

Sweden and Poland qualified directly to the World Cup. The other teams had to play-off.