UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying

The qualifying round for the 1984 European Football Championship consisted of 32 teams divided into seven groups; three of four teams and four of five teams. The qualifying round was played at various times between May 1982 and December 1983, with some groups concluding earlier than others.[1]

UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying
Tournament details
Dates1 May 1982 – 22 December 1983
Teams32
Tournament statistics
Matches played116
Goals scored341 (2.94 per match)
Top scorer(s) Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (7 goals)
UEFA European Qualifiers
FIFA World Cup
UEFA European Championship

Qualified teams
  Qualified
  Did not qualify
  Did not enter
  Not a UEFA member
Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in tournament[upper-alpha 1]
 FranceHost10 December 19811 (1960)
 BelgiumGroup 1 winner12 October 19832 (1972, 1980)
 PortugalGroup 2 winner1 November 19830 (debut)
 DenmarkGroup 3 winner16 November 19831 (1964)
 West GermanyGroup 6 winner20 November 19833 (1972, 1976, 1980)
 RomaniaGroup 5 winner30 November 19830 (debut)
 YugoslaviaGroup 4 winner21 December 19833 (1960, 1968, 1976)
 SpainGroup 7 winner21 December 19832 (1964, 1980)
  1. Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

Seedings

The draw took place on 8 January 1982 in Paris, France. 32 teams were drawn from the five pots into the seven groups. France qualified automatically as hosts. Teams qualified to the final tournament are in bold.

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 Pot 5

 West Germany
 Spain
 Italy
 Poland
 Yugoslavia
 England
 Belgium

 Czechoslovakia
 Austria
 Netherlands
 Soviet Union
 East Germany
 Hungary
 Wales

 Scotland
 Northern Ireland
 Republic of Ireland
 Romania
 Greece
 Portugal
 Bulgaria

 Sweden
 Denmark
  Switzerland
 Finland
 Turkey
 Norway
 Iceland

 Albania
 Malta
 Cyprus
 Luxembourg

Overview

There were a number of extremely close finishes in some of the qualifying groups. In Group 2, Portugal edged out the USSR by beating them narrowly 1–0 on a penalty by Rui Jordão in Lisbon on the final day. Meanwhile, in Group 5, again on the final day, Romania managed to hold on for a tense 1–1 draw in Bratislava and qualify at the expense of Czechoslovakia. A major surprise in this group was the poor performance of then-World Cup holders Italy, who were rebuilding after the retirement of many of their 1982 heroes and quickly dropped out of contention.

Another surprise was the qualification of Denmark in Group 3 at the expense of England. Having conceded a 2–2 draw at home against the Three Lions, the hitherto unknown Danes performed well in their other qualifiers and capped their impressive campaign with a 1–0 win at Wembley, while England dropped a point at home against Greece that ultimately cost them the qualifying berth.

There was also heartbreak for Northern Ireland in Group 6. After managing to beat hot favourites West Germany both home and away earlier in the campaign, they came within 11 minutes of making it to France, but could only look on as Gerd Strack scored a crucial late winning goal for the West Germans in their own final fixture at home to Albania.

In Group 7, The Netherlands thought they had done enough to qualify, given that their closest rivals Spain went into the final match needing to beat Malta by eleven goals in order to qualify. And when Spain went in at half-time in Seville leading the Maltese minnows by a margin of only 3–1, the Dutch could have been forgiven for assuming they were home and dry. Spain, incredibly, then proceeded to score nine more goals in the second half, the last of them coming in the 83rd minute from Juan Señor, to book an unlikely passage to the finals. UEFA has since changed its rules: all teams now play their final game at exactly the same time and date, so that none of the teams has an advantage. Also, overall goal difference is now de-emphasized in the tie-breakers in favour of head-to-head results.

Things were tightest of all in Group 4, where Wales, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia were all in contention until the final few seconds of the last match in the group, between the latter two teams in Split. A draw would have put the onlooking Welsh through to the finals, but just moments after Bulgaria had squandered a glorious chance to score the winning goal and seal their own qualification, Yugoslavian defender Ljubomir Radanović wrote himself into Balkan footballing history with the 90th-minute header that sent him and his teammates to France.

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:

  1. Greater number of points in all group matches
  2. Goal difference in all group matches
  3. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches
  4. Drawing of lots

Summary
  Group winners qualified directly for UEFA Euro 1984
  Other teams were eliminated
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Group 7

Belgium
Portugal
Denmark
Yugoslavia
Romania
West Germany
Spain

Switzerland

East Germany

Scotland
Soviet Union

Poland

Finland
England

Greece

Hungary

Luxembourg
Wales

Bulgaria

Norway
Sweden

Czechoslovakia

Italy

Cyprus
Northern Ireland

Austria

Turkey

Albania
Netherlands

Republic of Ireland

Iceland

Malta

Groups

Four groups of five teams and three groups of four teams competed for qualification for UEFA Euro 1984. The teams played home and away matches against the other teams nations in their group. The seven teams that acquired the most points to win their respective group qualified for the main tournament, joining the host nation France.

Group 1
Main article: UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying Group 1
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Belgium 6 4 1 1 12 8 +4 9 Qualify for final tournament — 3–0 2–1 3–2
2   Switzerland 6 2 2 2 7 9 −2 6 3–1 — 0–0 2–0
3  East Germany 6 2 1 3 7 7 0 5 1–2 3–0 — 2–1
4  Scotland 6 1 2 3 8 10 −2 4 1–1 2–2 2–0 —
Source: UEFA

Group 2
Main article: UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying Group 2
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Portugal 6 5 0 1 11 6 +5 10 Qualify for final tournament — 1–0 2–1 5–0
2  Soviet Union 6 4 1 1 11 2 +9 9 5–0 — 2–0 2–0
3  Poland 6 1 2 3 6 9 −3 4 0–1 1–1 — 1–1
4  Finland 6 0 1 5 3 14 −11 1 0–2 0–1 2–3 —
Source: UEFA

Group 3
Main article: UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying Group 3
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Denmark 8 6 1 1 17 5 +12 13 Qualify for final tournament — 2–2 1–0 3–1 6–0
2  England 8 5 2 1 23 3 +20 12 0–1 — 0–0 2–0 9–0
3  Greece 8 3 2 3 8 10 −2 8 0–2 0–3 — 2–2 1–0
4  Hungary 8 3 1 4 18 17 +1 7 1–0 0–3 2–3 — 6–2
5  Luxembourg 8 0 0 8 5 36 −31 0 1–2 0–4 0–2 2–6 —
Source: UEFA

Group 4
Main article: UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying Group 4
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Yugoslavia 6 3 2 1 12 11 +1 8 Qualify for final tournament — 4–4 3–2 2–1
2  Wales 6 2 3 1 7 6 +1 7 1–1 — 1–0 1–0
3  Bulgaria 6 2 1 3 7 8 −1 5 0–1 1–0 — 2–2
4  Norway 6 1 2 3 7 8 −1 4 3–1 0–0 1–2 —
Source: UEFA

Group 5
Main article: UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying Group 5
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Romania 8 5 2 1 9 3 +6 12 Qualify for final tournament — 2–0 0–1 1–0 3–1
2  Sweden 8 5 1 2 14 5 +9 11 0–1 — 1–0 2–0 5–0
3  Czechoslovakia 8 3 4 1 15 7 +8 10 1–1 2–2 — 2–0 6–0
4  Italy 8 1 3 4 6 12 −6 5 0–0 0–3 2–2 — 3–1
5  Cyprus 8 0 2 6 4 21 −17 2 0–1 0–1 1–1 1–1 —
Source: UEFA

Group 6
Main article: UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying Group 6
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  West Germany 8 5 1 2 15 5 +10 11 Qualify for final tournament — 0–1 3–0 5–1 2–1
2  Northern Ireland 8 5 1 2 8 5 +3 11 1–0 — 3–1 2–1 1–0
3  Austria 8 4 1 3 15 10 +5 9 0–0 2–0 — 4–0 5–0
4  Turkey 8 3 1 4 8 16 −8 7 0–3 1–0 3–1 — 1–0
5  Albania 8 0 2 6 4 14 −10 2 1–2 0–0 1–2 1–1 —
Source: UEFA

Group 7
Main article: UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying Group 7
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Spain 8 6 1 1 24 8 +16 13 Qualify for final tournament — 1–0 2–0 1–0 12–1
2  Netherlands 8 6 1 1 22 6 +16 13 2–1 — 2–1 3–0 5–0
3  Republic of Ireland 8 4 1 3 20 10 +10 9 3–3 2–3 — 2–0 8–0
4  Iceland 8 1 1 6 3 13 −10 3 0–1 1–1 0–3 — 1–0
5  Malta 8 1 0 7 5 37 −32 2 2–3 0–6 0–1 2–1 —
Source: UEFA

Goalscorers

There were 341 goals scored in 116 matches, for an average of 2.94 goals per match.

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

References
  1. Stokkermans, Karel (13 December 2001). "European Championship 1984". RSSSF.com. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
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