UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying

UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying

Tournament details
Dates	10 September 1986 – 20 December 1987
Teams	32
Tournament statistics
Matches played	117[note 1]
Goals scored	287 (2.45 per match)[note 1]
Top scorer(s)	John Bosman (9 goals)[note 1]
← 1984 1992 →

This page describes the qualifying procedure for UEFA Euro 1988.^[1]

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament[A]
West Germany	Host	14 March 1985	4 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984)
Denmark	Group 6 winner	14 October 1987	2 (1964, 1984)
Soviet Union	Group 3 winner	28 October 1987	4 (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972)
England	Group 4 winner	11 November 1987	2 (1968, 1980)
Republic of Ireland	Group 7 winner	11 November 1987	0 (debut)
Italy	Group 2 winner	14 November 1987	2 (1968, 1980)
Spain	Group 1 winner	18 November 1987	3 (1964, 1980, 1984)
Netherlands	Group 5 winner	9 December 1987	2 (1976, 1980)

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

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

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking:

1. Greater number of points in all group matches
2. Goal difference in all group matches
3. Greater number of goals scored in all group matches
4. Drawing of lots

The qualifying draw took place on 14 February 1986, in Frankfurt. West Germany qualified automatically as hosts of the competition. 32 teams entered the draw.

The qualifiers, consisting of 32 teams divided into seven groups; three of four teams and four of five teams, were played in 1986 and 1987. Each group winner progressed to the finals.

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	6	5	0	1	14	6	+8	10	Qualify for final tournament		—	1–0	2–0	5–0
2	Romania	6	4	1	1	13	3	+10	9			3–1	—	4–0	5–1
3	Austria	6	2	1	3	6	9	−3	5			2–3	0–0	—	3–0
4	Albania	6	0	0	6	2	17	−15	0			1–2	0–1	0–1	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Italy	8	6	1	1	16	4	+12	13	Qualify for final tournament		—	2–1	3–0	3–2	5–0
2	Sweden	8	4	2	2	12	5	+7	10			1–0	—	0–1	2–0	1–0
3	Portugal	8	2	4	2	6	8	−2	8			0–1	1–1	—	0–0	2–2
4	Switzerland	8	1	5	2	9	9	0	7			0–0	1–1	1–1	—	4–1
5	Malta	8	0	2	6	4	21	−17	2			0–2	0–5	0–1	1–1	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Soviet Union	8	5	3	0	14	3	+11	13	Qualify for final tournament		—	2–0	1–1	2–0	4–0
2	East Germany	8	4	3	1	13	4	+9	11			1–1	—	0–0	2–0	3–1
3	France	8	1	4	3	4	7	−3	6			0–2	0–1	—	2–0	1–1
4	Iceland	8	2	2	4	4	14	−10	6			1–1	0–6	0–0	—	2–1
5	Norway	8	1	2	5	5	12	−7	4			0–1	0–0	2–0	0–1	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	6	5	1	0	19	1	+18	11	Qualify for final tournament		—	2–0	3–0	8–0
2	Yugoslavia	6	4	0	2	13	9	+4	8			1–4	—	3–0	4–0
3	Northern Ireland	6	1	1	4	2	10	−8	3			0–2	1–2	—	1–0
4	Turkey	6	0	2	4	2	16	−14	2			0–0	2–3	0–0	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	8	6	2	0	15	1	+14	14	Qualify for final tournament		—	1–1	2–0	0–0	4–0[a]
2	Greece	8	4	1	3	12	13	−1	9			0–3	—	2–1	1–0	3–1
3	Hungary	8	4	0	4	13	11	+2	8			0–1	3–0	—	5–3	1–0
4	Poland	8	3	2	3	9	11	−2	8			0–2	2–1	3–2	—	0–0
5	Cyprus	8	0	1	7	3	16	−13	1			0–2	2–4	0–1	0–1	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	6	3	2	1	4	2	+2	8	Qualify for final tournament		—	1–1	1–0	1–0
2	Czechoslovakia	6	2	3	1	7	5	+2	7			0–0	—	2–0	3–0
3	Wales	6	2	2	2	7	5	+2	6			1–0	1–1	—	4–0
4	Finland	6	1	1	4	4	10	−6	3			0–1	3–0	1–1	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Republic of Ireland	8	4	3	1	10	5	+5	11	Qualify for final tournament		—	2–0	0–0	0–0	2–1
2	Bulgaria	8	4	2	2	12	6	+6	10			2–1	—	2–0	0–1	3–0
3	Belgium	8	3	3	2	16	8	+8	9			2–2	1–1	—	4–1	3–0
4	Scotland	8	3	3	2	7	5	+2	9			0–1	0–0	2–0	—	3–0
5	Luxembourg	8	0	1	7	2	23	−21	1			0–2	1–4	0–6	0–0	—

There were 287 goals scored in 117 matches, for an average of 2.45 goals per match.^{[note 1]}

9 goals

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

• UEFA Euro 1988 at UEFA.com