Listed below are the dates and results for the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for the European zone ( UEFA). For an overview of the qualification rounds, see the article 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification.

UEFA was allocated thirteen qualifying berths for the 1986 FIFA World Cup, and one place in a play-off, however Italy were the defending champions and qualified automatically, leaving 12.5 spots open for competition between 32 teams.

Europe's automatic qualifying berths were taken by Poland, West Germany, Portugal, England, Northern Ireland, France, Bulgaria, Hungary, Denmark, Soviet Union and Spain. Belgium and Scotland qualified through the UEFA play-off and UEFA–OFC intercontinental play-off respectively.

Format

The 32 teams were divided into 7 groups. The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The number of teams and spots for each group were as follows:

• Groups 2, 3, 4 and 6 had 5 teams each. The group winners and runners-up would qualify.
• Groups 1, 5 and 7 had 4 teams each. The group winners would qualify. The runners-up of Groups 1 and 5 would advance to the UEFA Play-offs, while the runner-up of Group 7 would advance to the UEFA / OFC Intercontinental Play-off. In the play-offs, the 2 teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis, with the winner qualifying.

Group play

The draw for the qualifying groups took place in Zürich, Switzerland on 7 December 1983. During the draw teams were drawn from the 5 pots into the 7 groups. The seedings below were announced ten days before the draw.

Summary

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6	Group 7
Poland	West Germany	England	France	Hungary	Denmark	Spain
Belgium	Portugal	Northern Ireland	Bulgaria	Netherlands	Soviet Union	Scotland
Albania Greece	Sweden Czechoslovakia Malta	Romania Finland Turkey	East Germany Yugoslavia Luxembourg	Austria Cyprus	Switzerland Republic of Ireland Norway	Wales Iceland

Group 1

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Poland	6	3	2	1	10	6	+4	8	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	0–0	2–2	3–1
2	Belgium	6	3	2	1	7	3	+4	8	Advance to UEFA play-off		2–0	—	3–1	2–0
3	Albania	6	1	2	3	6	9	−3	4			0–1	2–0	—	1–1
4	Greece	6	1	2	3	5	10	−5	4			1–4	0–0	2–0	—

Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	West Germany	8	5	2	1	22	9	+13	12	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	0–1	2–0	2–2	6–0
2	Portugal	8	5	0	3	12	10	+2	10			1–2	—	1–3	2–1	3–2
3	Sweden	8	4	1	3	14	9	+5	9			2–2	0–1	—	2–0	4–0
4	Czechoslovakia	8	3	2	3	11	12	−1	8			1–5	1–0	2–1	—	4–0
5	Malta	8	0	1	7	6	25	−19	1			2–3	1–3	1–2	0–0	—

Group 3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	8	4	4	0	21	2	+19	12	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	0–0	1–1	5–0	5–0
2	Northern Ireland	8	4	2	2	8	5	+3	10			0–1	—	3–2	2–1	2–0
3	Romania	8	3	3	2	12	7	+5	9			0–0	0–1	—	2–0	3–0
4	Finland	8	3	2	3	7	12	−5	8			1–1	1–0	1–1	—	1–0
5	Turkey	8	0	1	7	2	24	−22	1			0–8	0–0	1–3	1–2	—

Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	8	5	1	2	15	4	+11	11	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	2–0	2–0	6–0
2	Bulgaria	8	5	1	2	13	5	+8	11			2–0	—	1–0	2–1	4–0
3	East Germany	8	5	0	3	16	9	+7	10			2–0	2–1	—	2–3	3–1
4	Yugoslavia	8	3	2	3	7	8	−1	8			0–0	0–0	1–2	—	1–0
5	Luxembourg	8	0	0	8	2	27	−25	0			0–4	1–3	0–5	0–1	—

Group 5

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Hungary	6	5	0	1	12	4	+8	10	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	0–1	3–1	2–0
2	Netherlands	6	3	1	2	11	5	+6	7	Advance to UEFA play-off		1–2	—	1–1	7–1
3	Austria	6	3	1	2	9	8	+1	7			0–3	1–0	—	4–0
4	Cyprus	6	0	0	6	3	18	−15	0			1–2	0–1	1–2	—

Group 6

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	8	5	1	2	17	6	+11	11	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	4–2	0–0	3–0	1–0
2	Soviet Union	8	4	2	2	13	8	+5	10			1–0	—	4–0	2–0	1–0
3	Switzerland	8	2	4	2	5	10	−5	8			1–0	2–2	—	0–0	1–1
4	Republic of Ireland	8	2	2	4	5	10	−5	6			1–4	1–0	3–0	—	0–0
5	Norway	8	1	3	4	4	10	−6	5			1–5	1–1	0–1	1–0	—

Group 7

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	6	4	0	2	9	8	+1	8	Qualification to 1986 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	3–0	2–1
2	Scotland	6	3	1	2	8	4	+4	7	Advance to UEFA–OFC play-off		3–1	—	0–1	3–0
3	Wales	6	3	1	2	7	6	+1	7			3–0	1–1	—	2–1
4	Iceland	6	1	0	5	4	10	−6	2			1–2	0–1	1–0	—

UEFA play-off

16 October 1985

Belgium	1–0	Netherlands
Vercauteren 20'	Report

Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Brussels, Belgium

Attendance: 30,764

Referee: Pietro D'Elia ( Italy)

20 November 1985

Netherlands	2–1	Belgium
Houtman 60' De Wit 72'	Report	Grün 85'

De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Attendance: 48,962 ^[1]

Referee: George Courtney ( England)

2–2 on aggregate; Belgium won on away goals.

Inter-confederation play-offs

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Scotland	2–0	Australia	2–0	0–0

Goalscorers

8 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

References

External links

• FIFA.com Reports
• RSSSF Page
• Results and scorers
• UEFA Qualifier results with full game box scores at Scoreshelf.com