UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying

UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
Tournament details
Dates	4 June 1998 – 17 November 1999
Teams	49
Tournament statistics
Matches played	228
Goals scored	652 (2.86 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Raúl (11 goals)
	← 1996 2004 →

Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2000 final tournament, took place between 1998 and 1999. Forty-nine teams were divided into nine groups. All teams played against each other within their groups on 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.

Both Belgium and the Netherlands qualified automatically as the co-hosts of Euro 2000.^[1]^[2]

Qualified teams

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament^[A]
Belgium	Co-host	14 July 1995	3 (1972, 1980, 1984)
Netherlands	Co-host	14 July 1995	5 (1976, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996)
Czech Republic^[B]	Group 9 winner	9 June 1999	4 (1960, 1976, 1980, 1996)
Norway	Group 2 winner	8 September 1999	0 (debut)
Sweden	Group 5 winner	8 September 1999	1 (1992)
Spain	Group 6 winner	8 September 1999	5 (1964, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996)
Italy	Group 1 winner	9 October 1999	4 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1996)
Germany^[C]	Group 3 winner	9 October 1999	7 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996)
France	Group 4 winner	9 October 1999	4 (1960, 1984, 1992, 1996)
Romania	Group 7 winner	9 October 1999	2 (1984, 1996)
Yugoslavia^[D]	Group 8 winner	9 October 1999	4 (1960, 1968, 1976, 1984)
Portugal	Best runner-up	9 October 1999	2 (1984, 1996)
Denmark	Play-off winner	17 November 1999	5 (1964, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996)
England	Play-off winner	17 November 1999	5 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996)
Slovenia	Play-off winner	17 November 1999	0 (debut)
Turkey	Play-off winner	17 November 1999	1 (1996)

↑ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.
↑ From 1960 to 1980, the Czech Republic competed as Czechoslovakia.
↑ From 1972 to 1988, Germany competed as West Germany.
↑ From 1960 to 1984, FR Yugoslavia competed as Yugoslavia.

Qualification seeding

The draw occurred on 18 January 1998, in Ghent, Belgium. The 49 participating teams were divided into five drawing pots based on the newly-introduced 1997-edition of the UEFA national team coefficient ranking. The rankings calculated an average of the team's points per game achieved combined in the Euro 1996 and 1998 World Cup qualifiers. The seeding list was however subject to some modifications:^[3]^[4]

Germany were seeded first and not fifth as the defending champions (title holders).
Netherlands (ranked 11th) and Belgium (ranked 18th) were not seeded, as they did not participate in the qualifying tournament due to already having qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts. Consequently, all teams ranked below them moved up one or two seeding places higher than their rankings.

Nine groups were formed by drawing one team from each of the five pots. The remaining four teams from pot five were later randomly drawn into four of the groups. This meant that the four groups with six teams featured two teams from pot five.

Pot 1
Team	Coeff^[5]	Seed^[4]
Germany (title holders)	2.35	1
Spain	2.60	2
Romania	2.45	3
Russia	2.39	4
England	2.37	5
Scotland	2.30	6
Yugoslavia	2.30	7
Italy	2.28	8
Norway	2.22	9

Pot 2
Team	Coeff^[5]	Seed^[4]
Bulgaria	2.22	10
Croatia	2.11	11
Denmark	2.11	12
Portugal	2.10	13
Austria	2.05	14
France	2.00	15
Czech Republic	1.85	16
Turkey	1.81	17
Greece	1.78	18

Pot 3
Team	Coeff^[5]	Seed^[4]
Republic of Ireland	1.75	19
Switzerland	1.69	20
Sweden	1.67	21
Lithuania	1.65	22
Ukraine	1.65	23
Slovakia	1.50	24
Finland	1.44	25
Israel	1.38	26
Georgia	1.38	27

Pot 4
Team	Coeff^[5]	Seed^[4]
Poland	1.28	28
Hungary	1.25	29
Northern Ireland	1.20	30
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.12	31
Latvia	1.10	32
Macedonia	1.00	33
Cyprus	0.94	34
Wales	0.38	35
Iceland	0.78	36

Pot 5
Team	Coeff^[5]	Seed^[4]
Belarus	0.75	37
Slovenia	0.67	38
Armenia	0.65	39
Albania	0.60	40
Faroe Islands	0.60	41
Luxembourg	0.55	42
Moldova	0.50	43
Azerbaijan	0.22	44
Estonia	0.20	45
Malta	0.20	46
Liechtenstein	0.05	47
San Marino	0.00	48
Andorra	NR	49

Note: The UEFA national team coefficient ranking automatically had taken into account in its ranking calculation, that France automatically qualified as hosts for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, meaning that the coefficient for France only factored their UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying record. Similarly, the coefficient considered only the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification record for England, FR Yugoslavia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. England automatically qualified as hosts of UEFA Euro 1996 while FR Yugoslavia were suspended due to UN sanctions. Bosnia and Herzegovina made their European qualification debut. Andorra made their qualification debut after being admitted to UEFA in November 1996.

Summary

Group winners and the best ranked runner-up qualified directly for UEFA Euro 2000

The remaining runners-up advanced to the play-offs

Other teams were eliminated after the qualifying group stage

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

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking:^[6]

Higher number of points obtained in the matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference in matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored away from home in the matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
Higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
Fair play conduct in all group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card).

Groups

Group 1

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Italy	8	4	3	1	13	5	+8	15	Qualify for final tournament	—	2–3	2–0	4–0	1–1
2	Denmark	8	4	2	2	11	8	+3	14^[a]	Advance to play-offs	1–2	—	2–1	1–2	1–0
3	Switzerland	8	4	2	2	9	5	+4	14^[a]		0–0	1–1	—	2–0	2–0
4	Wales	8	3	0	5	7	16	−9	9		0–2	0–2	0–2	—	3–2
5	Belarus	8	0	3	5	4	10	−6	3		0–0	0–0	0–1	1–2	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Head-to-head points: Denmark 4, Switzerland 1.

Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Norway	10	8	1	1	21	9	+12	25	Qualify for final tournament	—	4–0	1–0	1–3	2–2	1–0
2	Slovenia	10	5	2	3	12	14	−2	17	Advance to play-offs	1–2	—	0–3	1–0	2–0	2–1
3	Greece	10	4	3	3	13	8	+5	15		0–2	2–2	—	1–2	2–0	3–0
4	Latvia	10	3	4	3	13	12	+1	13		1–2	1–2	0–0	—	0–0	1–0
5	Albania	10	1	4	5	8	14	−6	7		1–2	0–1	0–0	3–3	—	2–1
6	Georgia	10	1	2	7	8	18	−10	5		1–4	1–1	1–2	2–2	1–0	—

Source: UEFA

Group 3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	8	6	1	1	20	4	+16	19	Qualify for final tournament	—	0–0	2–0	4–0	6–1
2	Turkey	8	5	2	1	15	6	+9	17	Advance to play-offs	1–0	—	1–3	3–0	2–0
3	Finland	8	3	1	4	13	13	0	10		1–2	2–4	—	4–1	3–2
4	Northern Ireland	8	1	2	5	4	19	−15	5		0–3	0–3	1–0	—	2–2
5	Moldova	8	0	4	4	7	17	−10	4		1–3	1–1	0–0	0–0	—

Source: UEFA

Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	10	6	3	1	17	10	+7	21	Qualify for final tournament	—	0–0	2–3	3–2	2–0	2–0
2	Ukraine	10	5	5	0	14	4	+10	20	Advance to play-offs	0–0	—	3–2	1–1	2–0	4–0
3	Russia	10	6	1	3	22	12	+10	19		2–3	1–1	—	1–0	2–0	6–1
4	Iceland	10	4	3	3	12	7	+5	15		1–1	0–1	1–0	—	2–0	3–0
5	Armenia	10	2	2	6	8	15	−7	8		2–3	0–0	0–3	0–0	—	3–1
6	Andorra	10	0	0	10	3	28	−25	0		0–1	0–2	1–2	0–2	0–3	—

Source: UEFA

Group 5

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sweden	8	7	1	0	10	1	+9	22	Qualify for final tournament	—	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–0
2	England	8	3	4	1	14	4	+10	13^[a]	Advance to play-offs	0–0	—	3–1	0–0	6–0
3	Poland	8	4	1	3	12	8	+4	13^[a]		0–1	0–0	—	2–0	3–0
4	Bulgaria	8	2	2	4	6	8	−2	8		0–1	1–1	0–3	—	3–0
5	Luxembourg	8	0	0	8	2	23	−21	0		0–1	0–3	2–3	0–2	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Head-to-head points: England 4, Poland 1.

Group 6

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	8	7	0	1	42	5	+37	21	Qualify for final tournament	—	3–0	9–0	8–0	9–0
2	Israel	8	4	1	3	25	9	+16	13^[a]	Advance to play-offs	1–2	—	5–0	3–0	8–0
3	Austria	8	4	1	3	19	20	−1	13^[a]		1–3	1–1	—	3–1	7–0
4	Cyprus	8	4	0	4	12	21	−9	12		3–2	3–2	0–3	—	4–0
5	San Marino	8	0	0	8	1	44	−43	0		0–6	0–5	1–4	0–1	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Head-to-head points: Israel 4, Austria 1.

Group 7

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Romania	10	7	3	0	25	3	+22	24	Qualify for final tournament	—	1–1	0–0	2–0	4–0	7–0
2	Portugal	10	7	2	1	32	4	+28	23	Qualify for final tournament	0–1	—	1–0	3–0	7–0	8–0
3	Slovakia	10	5	2	3	12	9	+3	17		1–5	0–3	—	0–0	3–0	2–0
4	Hungary	10	3	3	4	14	10	+4	12		1–1	1–3	0–1	—	3–0	5–0
5	Azerbaijan	10	1	1	8	6	26	−20	4^[a]		0–1	1–1	0–1	0–4	—	4–0
6	Liechtenstein	10	1	1	8	2	39	−37	4^[a]		0–3	0–5	0–4	0–0	2–1	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Tied on head-to-head points (3). Head-to-head goal difference: Azerbaijan +3, Liechtenstein −3.

Group 8

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	FR Yugoslavia	8	5	2	1	18	8	+10	17	Qualify for final tournament	—	1–0	0–0	3–1	4–1
2	Republic of Ireland	8	5	1	2	14	6	+8	16	Advance to play-offs	2–1	—	2–0	1–0	5–0
3	Croatia	8	4	3	1	13	9	+4	15		2–2	1–0	—	3–2	2–1
4	Macedonia	8	2	2	4	13	14	−1	8		2–4	1–1	1–1	—	4–0
5	Malta	8	0	0	8	6	27	−21	0		0–3	2–3	1–4	1–2	—

Source: UEFA

Group 9

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Czech Republic	10	10	0	0	26	5	+21	30	Qualify for final tournament	—	3–2	3–0	2–0	4–1	2–0
2	Scotland	10	5	3	2	15	10	+5	18	Advance to play-offs	1–2	—	1–0	3–0	3–2	2–1
3	Bosnia and Herzegovina	10	3	2	5	14	17	−3	11^[a]		1–3	1–2	—	2–0	1–1	1–0
4	Lithuania	10	3	2	5	8	16	−8	11^[a]		0–4	0–0	4–2	—	1–2	0–0
5	Estonia	10	3	2	5	15	17	−2	11^[a]		0–2	0–0	1–4	1–2	—	5–0
6	Faroe Islands	10	0	3	7	4	17	−13	3		0–1	1–1	2–2	0–1	0–2	—

Source: UEFA
Notes:

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 Head-to-head points: Bosnia and Herzegovina 7, Lithuania 6, Estonia 4.

Ranking of second-placed teams

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. As some groups had five teams and others had six, matches played against fifth and sixth placed teams were discarded, despite the fact that only discarding matches against sixth-place teams would have been sufficient. After the best runner-up was found, all the others entered a random playoff to determine the last four qualifiers.

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

Pos	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	7	Portugal	6	4	1	1	11	3	+8	13	Qualify for final tournament
2	3	Turkey	6	4	1	1	12	5	+7	13	Advance to play-offs
3	9	Scotland	6	3	1	2	9	6	+3	10
4	1	Denmark	6	3	1	2	10	8	+2	10
5	4	Ukraine	6	2	4	0	6	4	+2	10
6	8	Republic of Ireland	6	3	1	2	6	4	+2	10
7	6	Israel	6	2	1	3	12	9	+3	7
8	5	England	6	1	4	1	5	4	+1	7
9	2	Slovenia	6	2	1	3	6	12	−6	7

Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: Counting only matches against teams ranked first to fourth in the group, 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Away goals scored; 5) Drawing of lots.

Play-offs

The remaining eight runners-up entered a random playoff, disputed in two legs, home and away.

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

References

↑ "SPORTS BRIEFS". Deseret News. 2024-01-23. Retrieved 2024-07-13.
↑ Archives, L. A. Times (1998-10-28). "Euro 2000 Officials Say Sites Will Be Ready". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
↑ Shaw, Phil (17 January 1998). "Football: Andorra and Bosnia join the long march to Euro 2000". The Independent. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 ^4.4 ^4.5 "European Championship 2000 Preliminary Competition". englandfootballonline.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 ^5.3 ^5.4 "UEFA European National Team Ranking Table 1997". England Football Online. 21 December 2001. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
↑ "European Championship 2000". RSSSF. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 17 January 2004. Retrieved 17 July 2017.

Other websites

UEFA Euro 2000 at UEFA.com

[3] Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

[4] From 1960 to 1980, the Czech Republic competed as Czechoslovakia.

[5] From 1972 to 1988, Germany competed as West Germany.

[6] From 1960 to 1984, FR Yugoslavia competed as Yugoslavia.

[table_hth_DEN0.25535827561065-11] 1.0 ^1.1 Head-to-head points: Denmark 4, Switzerland 1.

[table_hth_ENG0.17752281584662-12] 1.0 ^1.1 Head-to-head points: England 4, Poland 1.

[table_hth_ISR0.47690750354757-13] 1.0 ^1.1 Head-to-head points: Israel 4, Austria 1.

[table_hth_AZE0.77769284452204-14] 1.0 ^1.1 Tied on head-to-head points (3). Head-to-head goal difference: Azerbaijan +3, Liechtenstein −3.

[table_hth_BIH0.64577079920367-15] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 Head-to-head points: Bosnia and Herzegovina 7, Lithuania 6, Estonia 4.

[1] "SPORTS BRIEFS". Deseret News. 2024-01-23. Retrieved 2024-07-13.

[2] Archives, L. A. Times (1998-10-28). "Euro 2000 Officials Say Sites Will Be Ready". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-07-12.

[7] Shaw, Phil (17 January 1998). "Football: Andorra and Bosnia join the long march to Euro 2000". The Independent. Retrieved 16 August 2014.

[Seedinglist-8] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 ^4.3 ^4.4 ^4.5 "European Championship 2000 Preliminary Competition". englandfootballonline.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2014.

[Coefficients1997-9] 5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 ^5.3 ^5.4 "UEFA European National Team Ranking Table 1997". England Football Online. 21 December 2001. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2022.

[10] "European Championship 2000". RSSSF. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 17 January 2004. Retrieved 17 July 2017.

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