Group 2 consisted of five of the 50 teams entered into the European zone: ^[1] England, Georgia, Italy, Moldova, and Poland. These five teams competed on a home-and-away basis for two of the 15 spots in the final tournament allocated to the European zone, with the group's winner and runner-up claiming those spots.

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	8	6	1	1	15	2	+13	19	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	0–1	2–1	2–0	4–0
2	Italy	8	5	3	0	11	1	+10	18	Advance to second round		0–0	—	3–0	1–0	3–0
3	Poland	8	3	1	4	10	12	−2	10			0–2	0–0	—	4–1	2–1
4	Georgia	8	3	1	4	7	9	−2	10			0–2	0–0	3–0	—	2–0
5	Moldova	8	0	0	8	2	21	−19	0			0–3	1–3	0–3	0–1	—

Results

1 September 1996

18:00 UTC+3

Moldova	0–3	England
	Report	Barmby 24' Gascoigne 26' Shearer 61'

Republican Stadium, Chişinău

Attendance: 9,500

Referee: Ilkka Koho ( Finland)

5 October 1996

21:15 UTC+3

Moldova	1–3	Italy
Curtianu 12'	Report	Ravanelli 8', 87' Casiraghi 67'

Republican Stadium, Chişinău

Attendance: 4,085

Referee: Gerd Grabher ( Austria)

9 October 1996

20:00 UTC+1

England	2–1	Poland
Shearer 25', 38'	Report	Citko 7'

Wembley, London

Attendance: 74,663

Referee: Hellmut Krug ( Germany)

9 October 1996

20:30 UTC+2

Italy	1–0	Georgia
Ravanelli 43'	Report

Stadio Renato Curi, Perugia

Attendance: 14,012

Referee: Eric Blareau ( Belgium)

9 November 1996

16:00 UTC+4

Georgia	0–2	England
	Report	Sheringham 15' Ferdinand 37'

Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi

Attendance: 48,000

Referee: Jorge Monteiro Coroado ( Portugal)

10 November 1996

20:15 UTC+2

Poland	2–1	Moldova
Bałuszyński 4' K. Warzycha 77' ( pen.)	Report	Cleşcenco 83' ( pen.)

GKS Stadium, Katowice

Attendance: 8,000

Referee: Sotirios Vorgias ( Greece)

12 February 1997

20:00 UTC

England	0–1	Italy
	Report	Zola 19'

Wembley, London

Attendance: 75,056

Referee: Sándor Puhl ( Hungary)

29 March 1997

20:45 UTC+1

Italy	3–0	Moldova
Maldini 24' Zola 45' Vieri 50'	Report

Nereo Rocco Stadium, Trieste

Attendance: 17,677

Referee: Gilles Veissière ( France)

2 April 1997

20:30 UTC+2

Poland	0–0	Italy
	Report

Silesian Stadium, Chorzów

Attendance: 32,000

Referee: Kim Milton Nielsen ( Denmark)

30 April 1997

20:00 UTC+1

England	2–0	Georgia
Sheringham 42' Shearer 90+1'	Report

Wembley, London

Attendance: 71,208

Referee: Rémi Harrel ( France)

30 April 1997

20:30 UTC+2

Italy	3–0	Poland
Di Matteo 24' Maldini 36' R.Baggio 62'	Report

San Paolo, Naples

Attendance: 35,237

Referee: José María García-Aranda ( Spain)

31 May 1997

20:30 UTC+2

Poland	0–2	England
	Report	Shearer 5' Sheringham 90'

Silesian Stadium, Chorzów

Attendance: 25,000

Referee: Urs Meier ( Switzerland)

7 June 1997

19:15 UTC+4

Georgia	2–0	Moldova
S. Arveladze 27' Kinkladze 51'	Report

Central Stadium, Batumi

Attendance: 12,500

Referee: Charles Agius ( Malta)

14 June 1997

20:30 UTC+2

Poland	4–1	Georgia
Ledwoń 32' Trzeciak 34' Bukalski 74' ( pen.) K. Nowak 90'	Report	S. Arveladze 24'

GKS Stadium, Katowice

Attendance: 1,022

Referee: Günter Benkö ( Austria)

10 September 1997

20:00 UTC+1

England	4–0	Moldova
Scholes 29' Wright 46', 90' Gascoigne 81'	Report

Wembley, London

Attendance: 74,102

Referee: Karl-Erik Nilsson ( Sweden)

10 September 1997

21:00 UTC+4

Georgia	0–0	Italy
	Report

Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi

Attendance: 51,117

Referee: Rune Pedersen ( Norway)

24 September 1997

19:00 UTC+3

Moldova	0–1	Georgia
	Report	Ketsbaia 10'

Republican Stadium, Chişinău

Attendance: 5,300

Referee: Dani Koren ( Israel)

7 October 1997

19:00 UTC+3

Moldova	0–3	Poland
	Report (incorrect substitutions) Report	Juskowiak 23', 56', 60'

Republican Stadium, Chişinău

Attendance: 8,000

Referee: Metin Tokat ( Turkey)

11 October 1997

20:45 UTC+2

Italy	0–0	England
	Report

Olimpic Stadium, Rome

Attendance: 65,892

Referee: Mario van der Ende ( Netherlands)

11 October 1997

16:00 UTC+4

Georgia	3–0	Poland
A. Arveladze 55' Tskhadadze 68' Ketsbaia 74'	Report (incorrect substitutions) Report

Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi

Attendance: 15,000

Referee: Ľuboš Micheľ ( Slovakia)

Goal scorers

5 goals

• Alan Shearer

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Notes

External links

• Group 2 Detailed Results at RSSSF