1966 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
The 31 teams were drawn into nine groups of three or four teams each; however, after the withdrawals of Malta, Iceland and Syria, one group had just two teams, three groups had three teams and the remaining five groups had four teams. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify.
Group 1
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Belgium and Bulgaria finished level on points, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify.
Bulgaria qualified.
Group 2
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West Germany qualified.
Group 3
Rank | Team | ||||||||
1 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 10 | |
2 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 5 | +5 | 7 | |
3 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 8 | +2 | 7 | |
4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 20 | −14 | 0 |
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France qualified.
Group 4
Rank | Team | ||||||||
1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 9 | |
2 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 4 | +8 | 7 | |
3 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 6 | |
4 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 19 | −15 | 2 |
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Portugal qualified.
Group 5
Rank | Team | ||||||||
1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 9 | |
2 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 8 | |
3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 6 | |
4 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 12 | −10 | 1 |
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Switzerland qualified.
Group 6
Rank | Team | ||||||||
1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 3 | +5 | 7 | |
2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 4 | |
3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 | −5 | 1 |
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Hungary qualified. This is the first time Austria failed to qualify. The previous absences of the Austrian team at World Cup were all due to withdrawals.
Group 7
Rank | Team | ||||||||
1 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 6 | +13 | 10 | |
2 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 9 | +2 | 6 | |
3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 14 | −4 | 5 | |
4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 18 | −11 | 3 |
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Soviet Union qualified.
Group 8
Rank | Team | ||||||||
1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 3 | +14 | 9 | |
2 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 7 | |
3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 10 | +1 | 6 | |
4 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 20 | −15 | 2 |
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Italy qualified.
Group 9
----Syria withdrew to support the African teams who had withdrawn in protest at the allocation of spots. Republic of Ireland and Spain finished level on points, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify. This match was initially to be played in London, a city with a large Irish immigrant population, but the Spanish and Irish football associations later came to an agreement and moved the match to Paris.
Spain qualified.
Goalscorers
7 goals6 goals
5 goals
- Paul Van Himst
- Georgi Asparuhov
- Sandro Mazzola
- Jobby Crossan
- Włodzimierz Lubański
- Anatoliy Banishevskiy
3 goals
- Johnny Thio
- Karol Jokl
- Juhani Peltonen
- Nestor Combin
- Philippe Gondet
- Giorgos Sideris
- Paolo Barison
- Louis Pilot
- Jerzy Sadek
- Valentin Kozmich Ivanov
- Slava Metreveli
- Jesús María Pereda
- Köbi Kuhn
- Ivor Allchurch
- Rudolf Brunnenmeier
- Ivan Mráz
- Ole Fritsen
- Ole Madsen
- Peter Ducke
- Jürgen Nöldner
- János Farkas
- Máté Fenyvesi
- Giacinto Facchetti
- Bruno Mora
- Gianni Rivera
- Hennie van Nee
- George Best
- Harald Berg
- Erik Johansen
- Ernest Pol
- Nicolae Georgescu
- Viorel Mateianu
- John Greig
- Denis Law
- Vladimir Barkaya
- Lars Granström
- Bo Larsson
- Agne Simonsson
- Torbjörn Jonsson
- René-Pierre Quentin
- Fevzi Zemzem
- Werner Krämer
- Wolfgang Overath
- Klaus-Dieter Sieloff
- Dragan Džajić
- Mexhit Haxhiu
- Robert Jashari
- Erich Hof
- Armand Jurion
- Wilfried Puis
- Jacques Stockman
- Stoyan Kitov
- Ivan Petkov Kolev
- Alexander Horváth
- Dušan Kabát
- Andrej Kvašňák
- Mogens Berg
- Kaj Poulsen
- Tommy Troelsen
- Eberhard Vogel
- Martti Hyvärinen
- Semi Nuoranen
- Marcel Artelesa
- André Guy
- Angel Rambert
- Andreas Papaemmanouil
- Ferenc Bene
- Kálmán Mészöly
- Dezső Novák
- Gyula Rákosi
- Andy McEvoy
- Rahamim Talbi
- Giacomo Bulgarelli
- Ezio Pascutti
- Ernest Brenner
- Edy Dublin
- Ady Schmit
- Frans Geurtsen
- Theo Laseroms
- Bennie Muller
- Daan Schrijvers
- Willie Irvine
- Terry Neill
- Per Kristoffersen
- Olav Nilsen
- Arne Pedersen
- Finn Seemann
- Kai Sjøberg
- Ole Stavrum
- Roman Lentner
- Mário Coluna
- Jaime Graça
- Sorin Avram
- Alexandru Badea
- Dan Coe
- Carol Creiniceanu
- Ion Pârcălab
- Stevie Chalmers
- Dave Gibson
- Billy McNeill
- Davie Wilson
- Boris Kazakov
- Galimzyan Khusainov
- Mikheil Meskhi
- Yozhef Sabo
- Valery Voronin
- Carlos Lapetra
- José Ufarte
- Kurt Hamrin
- Ove Kindvall
- Anton Allemann
- Robert Hosp
- Ayhan Elmastaşoğlu
- Nedim Doğan
- Ron Davies
- Wyn Davies
- Mike England
- Ronnie Rees
- Alfred Heiß
- Uwe Seeler
- Heinz Strehl
- Horst Szymaniak
- Dražan Jerković
- Vladica Kovačević
- Džemaludin Mušović
- Velibor Vasović