Best WC qualifying match ever?

[Dominique Rocheteau]

What do you think was the best World Cup Qualifying match ever?

[Borruma]

Ireland 1-0 Holland

No, Really. ;)

[glennaldo_sf]

USA 2 - Mexico 0 for the the 2002 qualifying campaign. :)

[Fiorentina lives!]

Hard question to answer, since we are talking about a LOT of matches...

My personal faves:

1989: Trinidad-Tobago 0, United States 1 and the US is in

1993: Spain 1, Denmark 0 the coming out party for Cañizares

[guest]

USA 2 - Mexico 0 for the the 2002 qualifying campaign. :)
LOVED THE GAME!

[guest]

how r the u.s goign to win against top teams...when they r losing to england 2-0 in the 50 th min...england without 5 top players...

[glennaldo_sf]

how r the u.s goign to win against top teams...when they r losing to england 2-0 in the 50 th min...england without 5 top players...

Hey, you never know, we might do a 'pool....

Anyhoo back to the subject.... What a great topic – there are so many games to choose from. So we’ll get a lot of variety here. I guess the most exciting games for me come at the end of the qualifying campaign when there are simultaneous games going on or teams qualify at the death. . Some games that spring to mind:

1990 South Korea – UAE / Qatar – China. The United Arab Emirates qualified for the 1990 world cup in this sort of fashion. They were tied on points with China and due to play already qualified South Korea. The UAE were desperately hanging on for 1-1 draw and going out while China was beating already eliminated Qatar. Anyhow, Qatar rallied in, I believe injury time (either that or it was the last two minutes) to score twice (a la ManU – Munich) and sent the Emirates through despite having only won one game and drawn 4 in the final round robin went through.

Some other games I can think of off the top of my head:

‘93: France – Bulgaria… France completely self-destructed. Needing only one point from their relatively straightforward last two home games: first conceded twice in the last ten minutes to give Israel a 3-2 win in Paris and then doing it again against Bulgaria, this time losing 2-1.

’93 Argentina – Colombia. This was quite an amazing match in which Colombia, against all the odds ran out 5-0 winners in Buenos Aires, forcing the former world champions and previous finalists into a playoff with Australia. Valderama, Rincon, and what was his name… Asprilla were superb this night.

[astabooty]

how r the u.s goign to win against top teams...when they r losing to england 2-0 in the 50 th min...england without 5 top players...

i know you are a newb, but what the ******** does that have to do with this thread? also, you dont post results like that in threads. learn about the result tag and only post scores in threads with an [R] in the name and that are relevent to the score.

[guest]

I am only 12 years old....sheesh....lol...f*

[Hrvat]

Italy - Croatia 1-2 in '95. That's my personal favorite, I agree on France - Bulgaria being the biggest shocker.

[ShaRule]

Australia 2-2 Iran :eek:

what a match!!

[glennaldo_sf]

Italy - Croatia 1-2 in '95. That's my personal favorite, I agree on France - Bulgaria being the biggest shocker.

Are you sure this was a WCQ? I think that this was an Euro 96 qualifier.

[Hrvat]

Are you sure this was a WCQ? I think that this was an Euro 96 qualifier.

You're right, of course it is, my bad.

[zagorje_do_meksika]

Turkey - Wales 6:4 for WC98

I haven't really watch the match but the result by itself is quite impressive.

[comme]

Turkey - Wales 6:4 for WC98

I haven't really watch the match but the result by itself is quite impressive.


That game was just a comedy of errors, Wales were atrocious then, I think we lost 7-1 to Holland in that qualifying campaign.

[Power_of_foot]

It's OK.
People make such confusion.
By the way, I think WCQ is more competitive than Euri Qualifier.

You're right, of course it is, my bad.

[marcin79]

Germany 1 England 5 in WC 2002 Quals
It was simply something great. Who could expect Germany losing so hard? And after that who could expect that they would finally finish as second team of the world several months later.

France 1 Bulgaria 2 in WC 1994 Quals
One of these scenarios which would look as too unrealistic when in novel or movie.France where 6 points ahead I think, 2 games left. Then they lost at home to Israel and they needed to draw against Bulgaria at home. In last minute Emil Kostadinov scored a goal that eliminated France.

Norway 2 Poland 3 in WC 2002 Quals
This one is exactly not so famous but it was the very special one for Polish fans. Norway were favourites, and we scored two goals in first half. Later they scored vital goal, our goalie was injured, he saved great shot being injured, later it was goalies' change, new goalie lost goal one minute after he came on the pitch and we were praying to keep this 2-2 draw. And then our substitute right winger scored unexpected goal. It was Poland's milestone in WC 2002 Quals, when we qualified to World Cup for first time since 1986 WC.

[SectionX]

France 1 Bulgaria 2 in WC 1994 Quals
One of these scenarios which would look as too unrealistic when in novel or movie.France where 6 points ahead I think, 2 games left. Then they lost at home to Israel and they needed to draw against Bulgaria at home. In last minute Emil Kostadinov scored a goal that eliminated France.


hands down the greatest Q game ever.

[Sagy]

France 1 Bulgaria 2 in WC 1994 Quals
One of these scenarios which would look as too unrealistic when in novel or movie.France where 6 points ahead I think, 2 games left. Then they lost at home to Israel and they needed to draw against Bulgaria at home. In last minute Emil Kostadinov scored a goal that eliminated France.Either that one or the France 2 Israel 3 on the same pitch a month earlier.

On the eve of October 13th 1993, the top 3 teams in UEFA’s group 6 were:Team GP W T L GF:GA Pt
Fra 8 6 1 1 14: 5 13
Swe 8 5 2 1 15: 5 12
Bul 8 4 2 2 13: 8 10The meaningful games left were:
Oct 13th
France – Israel
Sweden – Finland
Bulgaria - Austria
Nov 10th
Austria – Sweden
Nov 17th
France – Bulgaria

In the 1993 WCQ a win was worth 2 points. Everyone expected the three home teams to win on Oct 13th and for Bulgaria to be the odd man out.

Well, the night of the 13th (no it wasn’t a Friday) was interesting to say the least. At half time Bulgaria was up 2:0 over Austria and both France and Sweden were leading 2:1 vs. the minnows of the group (Sweden might have had a 3:1 lead, I don’t remember). Bulgaria did their job to keep the interest going for several more minutes beating Austria 4:1. Sweden managed to hang on and beat Finland 3:2.

The story from Parc des Princes was very different. France maintained their lead until the 83rd minute when Israel tied the score at two. This by itself was a huge surprise, but 10 min letter (3rd min of stoppage time) Israel scored the winner on a counter attack and the rest is history.

The final standing:Team GP W T L GF:GA Pt
SWE 10 6 3 1 19- 8 15
BUL 10 6 2 2 19-10 14
Fra 10 6 1 3 17-10 13
Aus 10 3 2 5 15-16 8
Fin 10 2 1 7 9-18 5
Isr 10 1 3 6 10-27 5Israel’s only win was this game.

Both Bulgaria and Sweden made it to the Semi-finals in the WQ the next year.

[Hrvat]

My favorite teams had some shocks in the past, but never like this one... Horrific. If I remember correctly they accused Ginola of not holding the ball and trying to score at the end which enabled Bulgarians to make a counter attack. Think he never played for France again.