2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (play-off UEFA)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 2006 FIFA World Cup European Qualification Playoffs were a set of home-and-away playoffs to decide the final three places granted to national football teams from European nations (more precisely, UEFA members) for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

By the rules of the UEFA qualifying tournament, the first-place finishers in each of eight groups received automatic berths, along with the two second-place teams that had earned the most points against teams in the top six of their individual groups.

The six remaining second-place teams were divided into two pots based on their standings in the September 2005 FIFA World Rankings. The division was:

Pot 1:

Pot 2:

A draw was held on October 14, 2005 at FIFA headquarters in Zürich to pair each team from Pot 1 with a team from Pot 2. A second draw at the same time and location determined the order of the fixtures.

The playoffs were decided by the standard FIFA method of aggregate score, with away goals and, if necessary, extra time with the possibility of a penalty shootout at the end of the second leg. The winner of each playoff was awarded a place in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

[edit] Playoff 1

November 12, 2005 22:00	Spain	5 - 1 (HT : 2 - 0)	Slovakia	Vicente Calderon, Madrid, Spain Attendance: 47,210 Referee: Massimo De Santis ( Italy)
	Luis Garcia 10', 18', 74' David Albelda 61' Fernando Torres 65' (pen) Fernando Morientes 79'	(Report)	Miroslav Karhan 17' Peter Hlinka 48' Szilárd Németh 49' Marian Had 14', 63'

November 16, 2005 20:15	Slovakia	1 - 1 (HT : 0 - 0)	Spain	Tehelne Pole, Bratislava, Slovakia Attendance: 23,587 Referee: Markus Merk ( Germany)
	Ján Ďurica 8' Filip Hološko 50'	(Report)	David Villa 71'

Spain advance on aggregate, 6 - 2

[edit] Playoff 2

November 12, 2005 20:45	Switzerland	2 - 0 (HT : 1 - 0)	Turkey	Stade de Suisse, Bern, Switzerland Attendance: 31,130 Referee: Ľuboš Micheľ ( Slovakia)
	Philippe Senderos 41' Marco Streller 66' Ludovic Magnin 68' Valon Behrami 86'	(Report)	Hüseyin Çimşir 23' Serkan Balcı 65'

November 16, 2005 20:15	Turkey	4 - 2 (HT : 2 - 1)	Switzerland	Şükrü Saracoğlu, İstanbul, Turkey Attendance: 42,000 Referee: Frank de Bleeckere ( Belgium)
	Selçuk Şahin 12' Emre Belözoğlu 21' Tuncay Şanlı 22', 36', 89' Tolga Seyhan 44' Necati Ateş 52' (pen) Ergün Penbe 65' Tümer Metin 73'	(Report)	Alexander Frei 2' (pen) Philipp Degen 10' Marco Streller 52' 84' Pascal Zuberbühler 63' Valon Behrami 67'

Switzerland advance on away goals (2-0) after series is drawn on aggregate, 4-4.

[edit] Playoff 3

November 12, 2005 19:30	Norway	0 - 1 (HT : 0 - 1)	Czech Republic	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway Attendance: 24,264 Referee: Massimo Busacca ( Switzerland)
	Daniel Braaten 60' Erik Hagen 86'	(Report)	Vladimír Šmicer 31' Pavel Nedvěd 43' Tomáš Galásek 49' Marek Jankulovski 92'

November 16, 2005 20:15	Czech Republic	1 - 0 (HT : 1 - 0)	Norway	Toyota Arena, Prague, Czech Republic Attendance: 17,464 Referee: Graham Poll ( England)
	Tomáš Rosický 35' Marek Jankulovski 66'	(Report)	Erik Hagen 30' Fredrik Strømstad 36' Jon Inge Høiland 61' John Arne Riise 88'