2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

Format

Teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. The nine group winners qualified directly, while the best eight second-placed teams contested home and away play off matches for the remaining four places. In determining the best eight second placed teams, the results against teams finishing last in the six team groups were not counted for consistency between the five and six team groups.

Seeding

After initially proposing to use a similar system to recent World Cup and European Championship qualification (based on results across the previous two European qualification cycles), the UEFA Executive Committee decided on 27 September 2007 at its meeting in Istanbul that seeding for the qualifiers would be based on FIFA World Rankings, in accordance with the FIFA World Cup regulations (which note that where teams are ranked on "performance" criteria, the FIFA World Rankings must be used).

The November 2007 FIFA World Ranking the most recent at the time of the preliminary draw and used to determine the groups. Initially scheduled for 21 November, FIFA moved the release date of the ranking to 23 November to include the final match days of Euro 2008 qualification.

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Draw

The draw for the group stage took place in Durban, South Africa on 25 November 2007. During the draw, teams were drawn from the six pots A to F (see above) into the nine groups below, starting with pot F, which filled position 6 in the groups, then continued with pot E filling position 5, pot D in position 4 and so on.

Summary

Table – top row: group winners, second row: group runners-up, third row: others. The winner of each group qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup together with the winners of the play-off. The play-offs took place between the eight best runners-up among all nine groups while the worst group runner-up did not qualify.

First round

Group 1

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 1

Group 2

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 2

Group 3

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 3

Group 4

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 4

Group 5

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 5

Group 6

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 6

Group 7

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 7

Group 8

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 8

Group 9

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 9

Ranking of second placed teams

Because Group 9 had one team fewer than the others, matches against the sixth placed team in each group were not included in this ranking, although this ultimately did not change who advanced to the playoffs. As a result, eight matches played by each team counted for the purposes of the second placed table.

Second round

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA second round

The UEFA second round (often referred to as the play off stage) was contested by the best eight runners up from the nine first round groups. The winners of each of four home and away ties joined the group winners in the World Cup finals in South Africa. Norway, with 10 points, was ranked 9th so failed to qualify for the second round.

Seeding and draw

The eight teams were seeded according to the FIFA World Rankings released on 16 October (shown in parentheses in the table below). The draw for the ties was held in Zürich on 19 October, with the top four teams seeded into one pot and the bottom four teams seeded into a second. A separate draw decided the host of the first leg.

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Matches

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Qualified teams

The following 13 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.

:1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year. :2 Competed as West Germany. A separate team for East Germany also participated in qualifications during this time, having only competed in 1974. :3 From 1930 to 1998, Serbia competed together with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia as part of Yugoslavia, while in 2006 as Serbia and Montenegro together with Montenegro. :4 From 1934 to 1990, Slovakia competed as Czechoslovakia.

Top goalscorers

• Theofanis Gekas

• Edin Džeko

• Wayne Rooney

• Miroslav Klose

• David Villa

• Marc Janko

• Wesley Sonck

• Lukas Podolski

• Robbie Keane

• Elyaniv Barda

• Ebi Smolarek

• Stanislav Šesták

• Andriy Shevchenko

Below are full goalscorer lists for all groups and the play-off rounds:

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3
• Group 4
• Group 5
• Group 6
• Group 7
• Group 8
• Group 9
• Play-offs

References

References

1. (25 June 2007). "EXCO unveils World Cup programme". Union of European Football Associations.
2. (27 September 2007). "All clear for December EURO draw". Union of European Football Associations.
3. (12 November 2007). "Next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking on Friday 23 November 2007". Fédération Internationale de Football Association.
4. "Preliminary draw for the 2010 World Cup". Fédération Internationale de Football Association.
5. (22 November 2007). "Preliminary Draw Information". Fédération Internationale de Football Association.
6. (29 September 2009). "Key Decisions Reached in Rio". Fédération Internationale de Football Association.