1974 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

1974 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
Tournament details
Teams	32 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Top scorer(s)	Hristo Bonev (7 goals); Johan Cruyff (7 goals); Gigi Riva (7 goals); Joachim Streich (7 goals)
	← 1970 1978 →

Last updated August 15, 2025

Listed below are the dates and results for the 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for the European zone (UEFA). For an overview of the qualification rounds, see the article 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification .

The 32 teams were divided into 9 groups of 3 or 4 teams each (four groups with 3 teams and five groups with 4 teams). The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify, except the winner of Group 9, which would advance to the UEFA / CONMEBOL Intercontinental Play-off.

Draw

The draw for the qualifying groups took place in Düsseldorf on 17 July 1971. During the draw procedure, entrants were drawn into the 9 qualifying groups from the four pots of seeds.

Pot A	Pot B	Pot C	Pot D
Italy England Czechoslovakia Belgium Romania Soviet Union Sweden Bulgaria Yugoslavia	Portugal Spain France East Germany Denmark Poland Switzerland Netherlands Hungary	Northern Ireland Austria Turkey Republic of Ireland Wales Norway Scotland Greece Albania	Finland Luxembourg Malta Iceland Cyprus

Groups

Group 1

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1=	Austria	6	3	2	1	14	7	+7	8
1=	Sweden	6	3	2	1	15	8	+7	8
3	Hungary	6	2	4	0	12	7	+5	8
4	Malta	6	0	0	6	1	20	−19	0

Austria and Sweden finished level on points and goal difference, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify. Sweden won to qualify for the World Cup.

Group 2

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Italy	6	4	2	0	12	0	+12	10
2	Turkey	6	2	2	2	5	3	+2	6
3	Switzerland	6	2	2	2	2	4	−2	6
4	Luxembourg	6	1	0	5	2	14	−12	2

Group 3

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Netherlands	6	4	2	0	24	2	+22	10
2	Belgium	6	4	2	0	12	0	+12	10
3	Norway	6	2	0	4	9	16	−7	4
4	Iceland	6	0	0	6	2	29	−27	0

Group 4

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	East Germany	6	5	0	1	18	3	+15	10
2	Romania	6	4	1	1	17	4	+13	9
3	Finland	6	1	1	4	3	21	−18	3
4	Albania	6	1	0	5	3	13	−10	2

Group 5

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Poland	4	2	1	1	6	3	+3	5
2	England	4	1	2	1	3	4	−1	4
3	Wales	4	1	1	2	3	5	−2	3

Group 6

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Bulgaria	6	4	2	0	13	3	+10	10
2	Portugal	6	2	3	1	10	6	+4	7
3	Northern Ireland	6	1	3	2	5	6	−1	5
4	Cyprus	6	1	0	5	1	14	−13	2

Group 7

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1=	Spain	4	2	2	0	8	5	+3	6
1=	Yugoslavia	4	2	2	0	7	4	+3	6
3	Greece	4	0	0	4	5	11	−6	0

Spain and Yugoslavia finished level on points and goal difference, and a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would qualify. Yugoslavia won to qualify for the World Cup.

Group 8

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Scotland	4	3	0	1	8	3	+5	6
2	Czechoslovakia	4	2	1	1	9	3	+6	5
3	Denmark	4	0	1	3	2	13	−11	1

Group 9

Rank	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Soviet Union	4	3	0	1	5	2	+3	6
2	Republic of Ireland	4	1	1	2	4	5	−1	3
3	France	4	1	1	2	3	5	−2	3

The Soviet Union advanced to the UEFA–CONMEBOL play-off.

Inter-confederation play-offs

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Soviet Union	w.o. ^{[note 1]}	Chile	0–0	0–2 ^{[note 1]}

Goalscorers

7 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Einar Gunnarsson (playing against Belgium)
Charles Spiteri (playing against Austria)
Josip Katalinski (playing against Greece)

Notes

1 2 The Soviet Union refused to play in Chile for the second leg, so Chile were awarded a 2–0 walkover victory.

References

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[URS-CHI-1] 1 2 The Soviet Union refused to play in Chile for the second leg, so Chile were awarded a 2–0 walkover victory.

[note 1]

v t e 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification
« 1970 1978 »
AFC/OFC	Zone A Zone B Final round
CAF	Qualification
CONCACAF	1973 CONCACAF Championship Qualification
CONMEBOL	Qualification
UEFA	Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Group 8 Group 9
Play-offs	UEFA v CONMEBOL