Football at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's European Qualifiers

Football at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's European Qualifiers

Tournament details
Dates	24 March 1971 – 31 May 1972
Teams	22 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	36
Goals scored	112 (3.11 per match)
← 1968 1976 →

The Men's European Football Qualifiers for the 1972 Summer Olympics consisted of two stages, the first single elimination tournament and then group stage. ^[1]

First round

Main article: Football at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's European Qualifiers – First round

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Finland	w/o	Malta	—	—
Great Britain	1–5	Bulgaria	1–0	0–5
Republic of Ireland	0–3	Yugoslavia	0–1	0–2
Luxembourg	3–3	Austria	1–0	2–3
Romania	4–2	Albania	2–1	1–2
Switzerland	2–5	Denmark	2–1	0–4
East Germany	5–0	Italy	4–0	1–0
Spain	4–0	Turkey	3–0	1–0
Iceland	0–1	France	0–0	0–1
Poland	8–0	Greece	7–0	1–0
Soviet Union	4–0	Netherlands	4–0	0–0

Second round

Main article: Football at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's European Qualifiers – Second round

Group 1

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Soviet Union	4	4	0	0	13	2	+11	8	Qualification for 1972 Summer Olympics		—	4–0	5–1
2	France	4	2	0	2	10	9	+1	4			1–3	—	5–1
3	Austria	4	0	0	4	1	13	−12	0			0–1	0–3	—

Source: RSSSF

Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Poland	4	3	0	1	8	3	+5	6	Qualification for 1972 Summer Olympics		—	3–0	2–0
2	Bulgaria	4	2	1	1	14	10	+4	5			3–1	—	8–3
3	Spain	4	0	1	3	6	15	−9	1			0–2	3–3	—

Source: RSSSF

Group 3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	East Germany	2	1	1	0	2	0	+2	3	Qualification for 1972 Summer Olympics		—	2–0	—
2	Yugoslavia	2	0	1	1	0	2	−2	1			0–0	—	—
3	Finland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew		—	—	—

Source: RSSSF

Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	2	2	0	0	5	3	+2	4	Qualification for 1972 Summer Olympics		—	2–1
2	Romania	2	0	0	2	3	5	−2	0			2–3	—

Source: RSSSF

Qualified teams

The following four teams from Europe qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in the Summer Olympics football tournament 1 2
Soviet Union	Group 1 winners	18 November 1971	2 (1952, 1956 )
East Germany	Group 3 winners	26 April 1972	1 (1964)
Poland	Group 2 winners	7 May 1972	4 (1924, 1936, 1952, 1960)
Denmark	Group 4 winners	21 May 1972	6 (1908, 1912, 1920, 1948, 1952, 1960)

¹Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

² Includes all participations by a competing nation at the Summer Olympics (clubs representing nations, olympic teams, full national teams, etc.).

References

1. Games of the XX. Olympiad. RSSSF.