UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying

Tournament details
Dates	20 April 1994 – 13 December 1995
Teams	47
Tournament statistics
Matches played	231
Goals scored	680 (2.94 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Davor Šuker (12 goals)
← 1992 2000 →

Qualifying for UEFA Euro 1996 took place throughout 1994 and 1995. Forty-seven teams were divided into eight groups, with each team playing the others in their group both home and away. The winners of each group and the six best runners-up qualified automatically, while the two worst runners-up were involved in a play-off at a neutral venue. England qualified automatically as hosts of the event.

This was the first European Championship qualifying phase in which three points were awarded for each win, as opposed to the two points that had been awarded previously.

Qualified teams

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament[A]
England	Host	5 May 1992	4 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1992)
Spain	Group 2 winner	11 October 1995	4 (1964, 1980, 1984, 1988)
Russia[B]	Group 8 winner	11 October 1995	6 (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1988, 1992)
Switzerland	Group 3 winner	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Croatia	Group 4 winner	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Scotland	4th best runner-up	15 November 1995	1 (1992)
Bulgaria	2nd best runner-up	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Germany[C]	Group 7 winner	15 November 1995	6 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992)
Romania	Group 1 winner	15 November 1995	1 (1984)
Turkey	3rd best runner-up	15 November 1995	0 (debut)
Denmark	5th best runner-up	15 November 1995	4 (1964, 1984, 1988, 1992)
Czech Republic[D]	Group 5 winner	15 November 1995	3 (1960, 1976, 1980)
Italy	1st best runner-up	15 November 1995	3 (1968, 1980, 1988)
France	6th best runner-up	15 November 1995	3 (1960, 1984, 1992)
Portugal	Group 6 winner	15 November 1995	1 (1984)
Netherlands	Play-off winner	13 December 1995	4 (1976, 1980, 1988, 1992)

Seedings

The draw was made on 22 January 1994 in Manchester. Denmark were seeded first as title holders, while the remaining 46 teams were divided into six pots. Yugoslavia did not enter qualifying as they were suspended due to United Nations Security Council Resolution 757.^[1]

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

New entrants

New teams that joined UEFA's qualification games after the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA):

• From the former Soviet Union: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine
• From the former Czechoslovakia: Czech Republic and Slovakia
• From the former Yugoslavia: Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia
• Liechtenstein

Initially Czech Republic were in Pool 2 and Wales in Pool 3. Slovakia were initially in Pool 4, before being replaced by Macedonia and put into Pool 5 in place of Luxembourg who were moved down to Pool 6.

Summary

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

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tiebreakers were used to determine the final ranking:^[2]

1. Higher number of points obtained in the matches played among the teams in question;
2. Superior goal difference in matches played among the teams in question;
3. Higher number of goals scored away from home in the matches played among the teams in question;
4. Superior goal difference in all group matches;
5. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
6. Higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
7. 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	Romania	10	6	3	1	18	9	+9	21	Qualify for final tournament		—	1–3	3–2	2–1	2–1	3–0
2	France	10	5	5	0	22	2	+20	20			0–0	—	4–0	1–1	2–0	10–0
3	Slovakia	10	4	2	4	14	18	−4	14			0–2	0–0	—	4–1	1–0	4–1
4	Poland	10	3	4	3	14	12	+2	13			0–0	0–0	5–0	—	4–3	1–0
5	Israel	10	3	3	4	13	13	0	12			1–1	0–0	2–2	2–1	—	2–0
6	Azerbaijan	10	0	1	9	2	29	−27	1			1–4	0–2	0–1	0–0	0–2	—

Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	10	8	2	0	25	4	+21	26	Qualify for final tournament		—	3–0	1–1	3–0	6–0	1–0
2	Denmark	10	6	3	1	19	9	+10	21			1–1	—	3–1	1–0	4–0	3–1
3	Belgium	10	4	3	3	17	13	+4	15			1–4	1–3	—	1–1	2–0	2–0
4	Macedonia	10	1	4	5	9	18	−9	7[a]			0–2	1–1	0–5	—	3–0	1–2
5	Cyprus	10	1	4	5	6	20	−14	7[a]			1–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	—	2–0
6	Armenia	10	1	2	7	5	17	−12	5			0–2	0–2	0–2	2–2	0–0	—

Group 3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Switzerland	8	5	2	1	15	7	+8	17	Qualify for final tournament		—	1–2	4–2	3–0	1–0
2	Turkey	8	4	3	1	16	8	+8	15			1–2	—	2–1	2–0	5–0
3	Sweden	8	2	3	3	9	10	−1	9			0–0	2–2	—	2–0	1–1
4	Hungary	8	2	2	4	7	13	−6	8			2–2	2–2	1–0	—	1–0
5	Iceland	8	1	2	5	3	12	−9	5			0–2	0–0	0–1	2–1	—

Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Croatia	10	7	2	1	22	5	+17	23[a]	Qualify for final tournament		—	1–1	2–0	4–0	2–0	7–1
2	Italy	10	7	2	1	20	6	+14	23[a]			1–2	—	4–0	3–1	1–0	4–1
3	Lithuania	10	5	1	4	13	12	+1	16			0–0	0–1	—	1–3	2–1	5–0
4	Ukraine	10	4	1	5	11	15	−4	13			1–0	0–2	0–2	—	0–0	3–0
5	Slovenia	10	3	2	5	13	13	0	11			1–2	1–1	1–2	3–2	—	3–0
6	Estonia	10	0	0	10	3	31	−28	0			0–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	1–3	—

Group 5

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Czech Republic	10	6	3	1	21	6	+15	21	Qualify for final tournament		—	3–1	2–0	4–2	3–0	6–1
2	Netherlands	10	6	2	2	23	5	+18	20[a]	Advance to play-off		0–0	—	3–0	1–0	5–0	4–0
3	Norway	10	6	2	2	17	7	+10	20[a]			1–1	1–1	—	1–0	5–0	2–0
4	Belarus	10	3	2	5	8	13	−5	11			0–2	1–0	0–4	—	2–0	1–1
5	Luxembourg	10	3	1	6	3	21	−18	10			1–0	0–4	0–2	0–0	—	1–0
6	Malta	10	0	2	8	2	22	−20	2			0–0	0–4	0–1	0–2	0–1	—

Group 6

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	10	7	2	1	29	7	+22	23	Qualify for final tournament		—	3–0	1–1	1–0	3–2	8–0
2	Republic of Ireland	10	5	2	3	17	11	+6	17[a]	Advance to play-off		1–0	—	1–1	1–3	2–1	4–0
3	Northern Ireland	10	5	2	3	20	15	+5	17[a]			1–2	0–4	—	5–3	1–2	4–1
4	Austria	10	5	1	4	29	14	+15	16			1–1	3–1	1–2	—	5–0	7–0
5	Latvia	10	4	0	6	11	20	−9	12			1–3	0–3	0–1	3–2	—	1–0
6	Liechtenstein	10	0	1	9	1	40	−39	1			0–7	0–0	0–4	0–4	0–1	—

Group 7

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	10	8	1	1	27	10	+17	25	Qualify for final tournament		—	3–1	4–1	6–1	1–1	2–1
2	Bulgaria	10	7	1	2	24	10	+14	22			3–2	—	2–0	4–1	3–1	3–0
3	Georgia	10	5	0	5	14	13	+1	15			0–2	2–1	—	0–1	5–0	2–0
4	Moldova	10	3	0	7	11	27	−16	9			0–3	0–3	3–2	—	3–2	2–3
5	Wales	10	2	2	6	9	19	−10	8[a]			1–2	0–3	0–1	1–0	—	2–0
6	Albania	10	2	2	6	10	16	−6	8[a]			1–2	1–1	0–1	3–0	1–1	—

Group 8

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Russia	10	8	2	0	34	5	+29	26	Qualify for final tournament		—	0–0	2–1	3–1	3–0	4–0
2	Scotland	10	7	2	1	19	3	+16	23			1–1	—	1–0	1–0	5–1	5–0
3	Greece	10	6	0	4	23	9	+14	18			0–3	1–0	—	4–0	5–0	2–0
4	Finland	10	5	0	5	18	18	0	15			0–6	0–2	2–1	—	5–0	4–1
5	Faroe Islands	10	2	0	8	10	35	−25	6			2–5	0–2	1–5	0–4	—	3–0
6	San Marino	10	0	0	10	2	36	−34	0			0–7	0–2	0–4	0–2	1–3	—

Ranking of second-placed teams

The runners-up of each of the eight groups were ranked in a table to decide which seven of them would qualify. The best six runners-up would qualify automatically, while the two worst would compete in a play-off at a neutral venue to determine the final qualifier. As one group had five teams and the others had six, results against fifth and sixth placed teams were not factored in (despite the fact that discarding results against sixth placed teams would’ve been sufficient enough).

Pos	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	4	Italy	6	4	1	1	12	4	+8	13	Qualify for final tournament
2	7	Bulgaria	6	4	0	2	14	8	+6	12
3	3	Turkey	6	3	2	1	11	8	+3	11
4	8	Scotland	6	3	2	1	5	2	+3	11
5	2	Denmark	6	3	2	1	9	7	+2	11
6	1	France	6	2	4	0	8	2	+6	10
7	5	Netherlands	6	2	2	2	6	5	+1	8	Advance to play-off
8	6	Republic of Ireland	6	2	1	3	8	10	−2	7

Play-off

The bottom two runners-up, the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands, took part in a play-off on a neutral ground, Anfield, to determine the last team to qualify for the final tournament.

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Republic of Ireland	0–2	Netherlands

Goalscorers

There were 680 goals scored in 231 matches, for an average of 2.94 goals per match.

12 goals

11 goals

10 goals

9 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal