This is a thread, I always wanted to create. I was remembering most thrilling and closest and quality prone world cup qualifiers and the toughest groups, i had "encountered" while watching soccer since the early eighties. The following groups came to my mind: 1994 - Euro Group 6 - France, Austria, Sweden, Bulgaria, Finland, Israel That was a hell of a group with so many ups and downs for at least France, Sweden and Bulgaria, fighting for the 2 pots in USA 94. Just imagine that Sweden and Bulgaria later played the 3rd Place Match of USA 94, which simple shows the quality that group had. Golden Generations of France (Cantona, Papin, Ginola, Deschamps), Bulgaria (Stoichkov, Balakov, Kostadinov) and Sweden (Brolin, Dahlin) were facing each other. Even the Austrian, Israelis and Finland had their well known european stars with Herzog, Litmanen and Revivo. Israel was by far the best team of pot 6 after their shift to the european confederation. Four years earlier they only were halted by colombia in the play offs for italy 90 1982 - Euro Group 2 - Netherlands, France, Belgium, Ireland, Cyprus With Cyprus being the punching ball, Netherlands, France, Belgium and Ireland contest in one of the densest group ever, where every team was once almost save to qualify. In the end, the Netherlands, two time runners-up at the previous world cups, only became fourth in the group 2006 - Africa Final Round Group C - Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Lybia, Sudan, Benin Although Sudan and Benin were only minows, this was a favorable group of death. The decade was marked by dominance of Egypt in the upcoming years, Cameroon was still Cameroon and the Ivory Coast were on the rise. Ivory Coast was close to finish first and had it all in their hands with a home game vs. Cameroon in the penultimaty round but they lost 2-3 and it seemed their dream was over, but then, in the final round, Egypt managed a late equalizer in their away match to cameroon, costing them 2 points with ivory coast winning the parallel match in sudan to reach their first world cup ever...unforgettable. Share your memories on great qualifying groups here.
Last cycle's CONCACAF qualifying went down to the last minute. Going into the last round... 1. USA 19 pts (+6 GD, 15/8) 2. Costa Rica 15 pts (+5, 11/6) 3. Honduras 14 pts (+1, 11/9) 4. Mexico 11 pts (-1, 6/7) 5. Panama 8 pts (-3, 8/11) 6. Jamaica 4 pts (-8, 3/11) Top three qualify (USA and Costa Rica were already in) and the fourth slot would end up playing New Zealand to see who went to the WC. The three games all started within an hour of each other. 7:30 pm - CRvMEX - Costa Rica v Mexico starts 7:47 pm - CRvMEX 0:0 (18') - Mexico goal called back. 7:54 pm - CRvMEX 1:0 (24') - Costa Rica scores off of multiple lucky bounces, leaving the door open for Panama 7:58 pm - CRvMEX 1:1 (28') - Mexico levels the score with a fantastic 1v1 situation that goes Mexico's way. If score holds, they finish fourth. A win could guarantee them third, depending on goal differential. 8:18 pm - CRvMEX 2:1 (63') - Costa Rica takes the lead off a cross from close to the end line. Mexico in danger of not qualifying. 8:30 pm - JAMvHON and PANvUSA start. Honduras fighting for third place and Panama fighting for fourth. 8:45 pm - CRvMEX 2:1 final. Mexico needs Panama to not win or they lose on tiebreakers. Honduras has directly qualified due to Mexico not winning. 8:48 pm - PANvUSA 1:0 (18') Panama jumps to fourth place, bumping Mexico to fifth. 9:15 pm - PANvUSA 1:1 (64') Panama falls back to fifth place 9:34 pm - PANvUSA 2:1 (83') Panama scores, moving back to fourth place, minutes away from moving on to play New Zealand. 9:43 pm - PANvUSA 2:2 (92') USA levels the score, Mexico moves back to fourth. 9:44 pm - PANvUSA 2:3 (93') USA seals Panama's fate, saving Mexico from not qualifying. (Highlights from the game here.)
I have three examples for World Cup 2006: In CONCACAF, Trinidad and Tobago beat Mexico on the last matchday. That let Trinidad and Tobago remain ahead of Guatemala to finish fourth. Trinidad and Tobago beat Bahrain in an interconfederational playoff to qualify for the first time. In UEFA Group 4, three out of six teams went undefeated. Israel, who was the fourth seed, got off to a good start with a scoreless draw at France. That was the first of 11 draws between two of France, Switzerland, Ireland, and Israel. Those four teams each won all four of their games against Cyprus and Faroe Islands. The only game between two of France, Switzerland, Ireland, and Israel that was not a draw was on Matchday 8, when France won 1:0 at Ireland. France had 5 wins and 5 draws to win the group of 20 points. Switzerland and Israel each had 4 wins and 6 draws for 18 points. Switzerland qualified from two tiebreakers. First they got second by having a better goal differential than Israel. Then they qualified over Turkey on away goals after the aggregate was 4:4. Ireland finished in fourth with 4 wins, 5 draws, and 1 loss. The 12 games between two of France, Switzerland, Ireland, and Israel combined to have only 19 goals. In their last 9 qualifiers, Israel went undefeated and scored in every game. I wonder if another team has ever went undefeated and scored in their last 9 or more qualifiers for a World Cup they didn't qualify for. In AFC Round 2 (first group stage) Group 4, only the group winner advanced to Round 3. China went into their last game with a chance to advance, won 7:0 hosting Hong Kong, and were eliminated. Kuwait won 6:1 hosting Malaysia. China and Kuwait each won 1:0 when hosting the other one and beat Malaysia and Hong Kong twice each. Kuwait and China each had 5 wins, 0 draws, 1 loss, 15 points, and a +13 goal differential. Kuwait won the group on the goals scored tiebreaker with 15 goals scored and 2 goals allowed. China scored 14 goals and allowed 1. I wonder if another team has scored 14 times more goals than they allowed in qualifiers for a World Cup they didn't qualify for.
This is the group that popped in my mind when I read the thread title. Netherlands would have qualified had they beat France in their final match. From memory, I want to say there was talk that Johan Cruyff was thinking of returning to play in that one match to help his country qualify but, if successful, he would not go to the finals in Spain. I'm not 100% sure but that's how I recall it from news reports of the day. He ultimately stayed retired, France won 2-0 and Netherlands went from Spain '82 to fourth in the group.
The 1994 CONMEBOL qualifying groups were the last of their kind. Back then, CONMEBOL would schedule a month of games for qualifying making the proceedings more like a tournament. The teams were very compact and the action was back to back. In this edition Chile was serving a punishment from FIFA. Both groups were pretty amazing to watch. Together it was fascinating television. The A group had Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru. Argentina were neck and neck the whole series. Paraguay were gamely trying to stay close. Peru was the sacrificial victim. In the last game Colombia led by one point but had to play in Argentina. They then produced a shocking 0-5 victory against the sub-champions. IIRC Paraguay actually had a chance to get into second place but they were only able to tie in Lima. The B group was Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Historically, the last three were very weak teams and were not expected to give Brazil and Uruguay any problems. In particular, Brazil were supposedly a shoo-in having never lost a single qualifying game in their history. Bolivia immediately gave notice with a resounding 1-7 away against Venezuela. Ecuador meanwhile fought hard with Brazil and were certainly not the lesser team in a disappointing 0-0 home tie against Brazil. In the second round, Bolivia shocked Brazil by winning 2-0 at home and handing them their first qualifying loss ever. Bolivia was also favored with a favorable schedule of having all four home games one after another and proceeded to win every game. By the time the 6th game was coming up Brazil and Uruguay were suddenly looking at Bolivia far ahead in the points table and a +18 goal differential. Surreal stuff for everybody. Brazil managed to cut the difference with a 6-0 drubbing of Bolivia but Uruguay were lucky to get a 2-1 victory. By the last game, Uruguay were virtually eliminated since they needed to get a result at Brazil. With Brazil's win and Bolivia's tie at Ecuador Brazil was able to beat Bolivia to the top spot by one point. The aftermath of these remarkable qualifiers was that CONMEBOL switched to their current 10 country round robin format with games played across two years. This favors bigger countries with deeper rosters.