2002 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 9

The 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification UEFA Group 9 was a UEFA qualifying group for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The group comprised Albania, England, Finland, Germany and Greece.

The group was won by England, who qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The runners-up, Germany — who would later reach the final of the tournament proper — entered the UEFA Qualification Playoffs.

England started the qualification process badly, a home defeat to Germany and an away draw with Finland (soon after a poor team performance at the 2000 European Championships) saw the resignation of their manager Kevin Keegan, and the appointment of Sven-Goran Eriksson - the first non-Englishman to be given the job - in his place. With the new manager, they picked themselves up and won five in a row, while the Germans themselves unexpectedly faltered: also drawing with Finland away from home, they also lost their home match with England by a resounding 5-1. Finland, in fact, might have been in with a chance of qualification themselves, but they lost a match to the unfancied Greece - whom England had to play in their final match, while Finland played Germany on the same day, an hour later, with England and Germany guaranteed the top two places and separated only by goal difference. Greece unexpectedly took the lead twice at Old Trafford, and England were only rescued by an injury-time free-kick goal from Beckham to tie the score at 2-2: in the Germany-Finland match, the news of England's result came through at half-time, and a win from Germany would thus have won the group, but they could only draw 0-0 themselves, England taking the top place on goal difference.

Standings[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	8	5	2	1	16	6	+10	17	Qualification to 2002 FIFA World Cup		—	0–1	2–1	2–2	2–0
2	Germany	8	5	2	1	14	10	+4	17	Advance to UEFA play-offs		1–5	—	0–0	2–0	2–1
3	Finland	8	3	3	2	12	7	+5	12			0–0	2–2	—	5–1	2–1
4	Greece	8	2	1	5	7	17	−10	7			0–2	2–4	1–0	—	1–0
5	Albania	8	1	0	7	5	14	−9	3			1–3	0–2	0–2	2–0	—

Results[]

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Goalscorers[]

6 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

References[]

External links[]

• FIFA official page
• RSSSF - 2002 World Cup Qualification
• Allworldcup