In the previous article, we talked about the first four groups of the 1986 Fifac world cup in Europe, and this time we will talk about several other groups.
There were only four teams in Group 5 of the 1986 FIFA World Cup European Qualifiers: the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria and Cyprus. The Dutch were runners-up in two World Cups, but they missed the last World Cup already in Euro 1984, when they started to emerge with players such as Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard, and it was naturally their goal to enter the World Cup. But they had a bad start to the qualifiers, losing to Hungary and Austria, but they secured their qualification for the play-offs by scoring a goal difference against Cyprus. Hungary advanced to the first place in the group with a strong start-up five-game winning streak.
Group 6 is a group of five teams, namely the Soviet Union, Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland and Norway. Theoretically, the strongest team in this group is the Soviet union, Blokhin still plays in the squad, plus Belanov, Dasayev and other stars are also superstar-level existence, but they did not start well, the first game away 0:1 to Ireland, the result of which was condemned by soviet domestic public opinion. Many radical fans believed that this was due to the manager's excessive reliance on older players, so Blokhin was forced to leave the national team. But without Blokhin, the results of the Soviet team did not improve, they have drawn with Norway and Switzerland, and had to ask Blokhin to re-wear the national team shirt. The Soviet union's form also began to return, and in the remaining five games, except for the loss to Denmark, they all won and finally advanced to the second place in the group.
The Danish team that pushed the Soviet Union to win the first place, with the rise of the Great Laudrup and others, Denmark also became a team that could not be ignored in that era.
There are only four teams in Group 7, namely Spain, Scotland, Wales and Iceland. This group is probably the most story-telling group in this qualifier, not because of the fierce competition. In fact, the competition in this group is really fierce, first Iceland beat Wales in the first round, and then two consecutive wins scotland suffered two consecutive defeats, the situation is endless, and finally Spain won the first place.
If it's just intense, then this group is nothing special? The problem was the last match between Wales and Scotland, when the two sides shook hands 1:1, which meant that Scotland beat Wales to second place in the group with three goals difference and qualified for the play-offs. While the Scottish players were celebrating, their manager, Scottish legend Jock Stan, felt unwell and died that day at the age of 62.
The unexpected death of Jock Stan made the team's assistant coach the acting head coach, and this person was none other than Ferguson, the old lord of the mighty jianghu. Ferguson was also under pressure at the time, and since Scotland had fewer goals difference than the Netherlands, it meant they had to participate in the intercontinental play-offs.
But Scotland's luck was superb again, as their opponents were the winners of the Oceania qualifiers. Only four teams participated in the Oceania Qualifiers, except for Australia and New Zealand, two teams that could not stay in Asia, and Australia finally won the first place without suspense. Australia may be strong in Oceania, but they are weak in front of Scotland, and Ferguson's team won 2-0 in the first leg, shook hands 0-0 in the second leg, and advanced to the World Cup with an aggregate score of 2:0, which was also a tribute to Jock Stan's spirit in heaven.
The Scots should be thankful that they avoided the Netherlands and Belgium. The first leg of the match between the two sides was played on 16 October 1985 at the Constant Van den Stoke stadium in Brussels, resulting in Belgium beating the Netherlands 1–0 at home. The second leg was played on 20 November 1985 at the De Kuip Stadium in Rotterdam, and despite the Netherlands' 2–1 win, they scored fewer goals away from home and were eliminated twice in a row.