2014 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA second round

The UEFA second round was contested by the best eight runners-up from the nine first-round groups from the UEFA segment of the qualification tournament for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in football. The winners – Croatia, France, Greece, and Portugal – of each of four home and away ties joined the group winners in the World Cup in Brazil. The matches, which are often referred to as 'play-offs', were held on 15 and 19 November 2013.

The draw for the ties was held in Zürich on 21 October,[1] with the October 2013 FIFA World Rankings used to decide which of the teams would be seeded.[1]

Qualified teams

The eight best runners-up from the UEFA first round qualified for the play-offs; with one group having one team fewer than the others, matches against the sixth-placed team in each First Round group did not count for this ranking. As a result, eight matches played by each team counted for the purposes of ranking the runners-up (below table).

Ranking of second-placed teams

The eight best runners-up were determined by the following parameters in this order:

  1. Highest number of points
  2. Goal difference
  3. Highest number of goals scored

Pos Grp Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 G  Greece 8 6 1 1 9 4 +5 19 Advance to second round (play-offs)
2 I  France 8 5 2 1 15 6 +9 17
3 F  Portugal 8 4 3 1 15 8 +7 15
4 H  Ukraine 8 4 3 1 11 4 +7 15
5 C  Sweden 8 4 2 2 15 13 +2 14
6 E  Iceland 8 4 2 2 15 14 +1 14
7 D  Romania 8 4 1 3 11 12 −1 13
8 A  Croatia 8 3 2 3 9 8 +1 11
9 B  Denmark 8 2 4 2 9 11 −2 10
Source:[citation needed]

Seeding and draw

The second round draw took place at the headquarters of FIFA in Zurich on 21 October at 14:00 UTC+2.[2] October 2013 FIFA World Rankings were used to decide which of the teams would be seeded (shown below in brackets).[1]

The following teams participated in the second round:[3][4]

Pot 1 (seeded)
Team Rank
 Portugal 14
 Greece 15
 Croatia 18
 Ukraine 20
Pot 2 (unseeded)
Team Rank
 France 21
 Sweden 25
 Romania 29
 Iceland 46

Matches

The draw was conducted by Gordon Savic, Head of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, with the assistance of former Switzerland international Alexander Frei. The matches were played on 15 and 19 November 2013.[5][6][7]

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Portugal  4–2  Sweden 1–0 3–2
Ukraine  2–3  France 2–0 0–3
Greece  4–2  Romania 3–1 1–1
Iceland  0–2  Croatia 0–0 0–2
Portugal 1–0 Sweden
Ronaldo 82' Report
Attendance: 61,467
Sweden 2–3 Portugal
Ibrahimović 68', 72' Report Ronaldo 50', 77', 79'
Attendance: 49,766
Referee: Howard Webb (England)

Portugal won 4–2 on aggregate and qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Ukraine 2–0 France
Zozulya 62'
Yarmolenko 82' (pen.)		 Report
Attendance: 67,732
France 3–0 Ukraine
Sakho 22', 72'
Benzema 34'		 Report
Attendance: 77,098

France won 3–2 on aggregate and qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Greece 3–1 Romania
Mitroglou 14', 67'
Salpingidis 21'		 Report Stancu 19'
Attendance: 26,200
Romania 1–1 Greece
Torosidis 55' (o.g.) Report Mitroglou 23'
Attendance: 49,793

Greece won 4–2 on aggregate and qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Iceland 0–0 Croatia
Report
Attendance: 9,767
Croatia 2–0 Iceland
Mandžukić 27'
Srna 47'		 Report
Attendance: 22,612

Croatia won 2–0 on aggregate and qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Discipline

Pos Player Country Yellow card Red card Suspended for match(es) Reason
DF Birkir Már Sævarsson  Iceland 2 0 vs Croatia (15 November 2013) Booked in two 2014 World Cup qualifying matches
MF Ognjen Vukojević  Croatia 2 0 vs Iceland (15 November 2013) Booked in two 2014 World Cup qualifying matches
FW Panagiotis Kone  Greece 2 0 vs Romania (15 November 2013) Booked in two 2014 World Cup qualifying matches
MF Ólafur Ingi Skúlason  Iceland 0 1 vs Croatia (19 November 2013) Sent off in a 2014 World Cup qualifying match
FW Mario Mandžukić  Croatia 0 1 vs Brazil (12 June 2014) Sent off in a 2014 World Cup qualifying match
MF Costin Lazăr  Romania 2 1 vs Greece (19 November 2013) Sent off in a 2014 World Cup qualifying match
DF Laurent Koscielny  France 0 1 vs Ukraine (19 November 2013) Sent off in a 2014 World Cup qualifying match
DF Artem Fedetskyi  Ukraine 2 0 vs France (19 November 2013) Booked in two 2014 World Cup qualifying match
DF Oleksandr Kucher  Ukraine 2 1 vs France (19 November 2013) Sent off in a 2014 World Cup qualifying match

Goalscorers

4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Own goals

References

  1. ^ a b c "Dates set for African and European qualifying draws". FIFA. 2013-06-15. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013.
  2. ^ "Watch the European play-off draw on FIFA.com". uefa.com. 18 October 2013. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  3. ^ "World Cup play-off seeds confirmed". uefa.com. 17 October 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  4. ^ "European play-off draw procedures explained". FIFA.com. 17 October 2013. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013.
  5. ^ "2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil – Preliminary Competition Format and Draw Procedures – European Zone" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 29 July 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 21, 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  6. ^ "European hopefuls learn play-off fate". FIFA.com. 21 October 2013. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013.
  7. ^ "World Cup 2014 play-offs draw – live!". Guardian UK. 21 October 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.

External links