Qualifying for the World Championships – how Ukraine performed before

Qualifying for the World Championships – how Ukraine performed before

Already today, December 7, Ukraine will recognize its future rivals in the selection for the World Cup, which will be held in November-December 2022 in Qatar.

For the first time, the national team of Ukraine took part in the selection for the world championships, only in 1996, when the selection for the 1998 French championship began. Since then, Ukraine has taken part in six selections in total. ISPORT remembered them all.

World Championship 1998 (France)

Rivals: Germany, Portugal, Armenia, Northern Ireland, Albania

So pin up how the history of the national team of Ukraine in 1996 was very short, it was seeded in the fourth pot and received in its group not just strong teams, but the best European team in the world ranking – European champions Germany, as well as one of the best teams in the second pot Portugal.

Moreover, from the fifth pot, where there were only four teams, the strongest one fell out – Albania, and from the sixth pot another tough nut came up – Armenia.

We were lucky only with the third pot, from there we got the worst-rated Northern Ireland.

Result: second place (6 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses)

Already in the first two rounds, Ukraine won two victories, one of which was over Portugal. As it turns out later, the Portuguese will never lose again, but they will take third place, losing only one point to Ukraine.

In home matches, the “blue-yellows” have never lost (3 wins, 2 draws), and on the road they lost to the Germans and the Portuguese, but beat three other teams.