1998 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 5

Group 5 consisted of five of the 50 teams entered into the European zone:^[a] Bulgaria, Cyprus, Israel, Luxembourg, and Russia. These five teams competed on a home-and-away basis for two of the 15 spots in the final tournament allocated to the European zone, with the group's winner and runner-up claiming those spots.

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Bulgaria	8	6	0	2	18	9	+9	18	Qualification to 1998 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	1–0	4–1	4–0
2	Russia	8	5	2	1	19	5	+14	17	Advance to second round		4–2	—	2–0	4–0	3–0
3	Israel	8	4	1	3	9	7	+2	13			2–1	1–1	—	2–0	1–0
4	Cyprus	8	3	1	4	10	15	−5	10			1–3	1–1	2–0	—	2–0
5	Luxembourg	8	0	0	8	2	22	−20	0			1–2	0–4	0–3	1–3	—

Source: ^[1]

Matches

1 September 1996

18:00 UTC+3

Israel	2–1	Bulgaria
Harazi 34' Banin 62' (pen.)	Report	Balakov 3' (pen.)

Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan

Attendance: 13,200

Referee: Alfredo Trentalange (Italy)

1 September 1996

19:00 UTC+3

Russia	4–0	Cyprus
Nikiforov 8', 50' Kolyvanov 34' Beschastnykh 81'	Report

Dinamo Stadium, Moscow

Attendance: 8,500

Referee: Karl-Erik Nilsson (Sweden)

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8 October 1996

20:00 UTC+2

Luxembourg	1–2	Bulgaria
Langers 20'	Report	Balakov 14' (pen.) Kostadinov 37'

Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City

Attendance: 3,775

Referee: Yevi Kollari (Albania)

9 October 1996

18:00 UTC+3

Israel	1–1	Russia
Brumer 65'	Report	Kolyvanov 82'

Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan

Attendance: 32,000

Referee: Marc Batta (France)

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10 November 1996

17:00 UTC+1

Luxembourg	0–4	Russia
	Report	Tikhonov 34' Kanchelskis 38' Beschastnykh 50' Karpin 77'

Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City

Attendance: 5,660

Referee: Juha Hirviniemi (Finland)

10 November 1996

18:00 UTC+2

Cyprus	2–0	Israel
Gogić 9', 15' (pen.)	Report

Tsirion Stadium, Limassol

Attendance: 10,500

Referee: Gheorghe Constantin (Romania)

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14 December 1996

16:00 UTC+2

Cyprus	1–3	Bulgaria
Pittas 29'	Report	Kostadinov 23' Balakov 34' Iliev 70'

Tsirion Stadium, Limassol

Attendance: 6,500

Referee: John Rowbotham (Scotland)

15 December 1996

18:00 UTC+2

Israel	1–0	Luxembourg
Ohana 39'	Report

Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan

Attendance: 24,400

Referee: John Ashman (Wales)

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29 March 1997

18:30 UTC+2

Cyprus	1–1	Russia
Gogić 31'	Report	Simutenkov 32'

Dimotiko, Paralimni

Attendance: 3,199

Referee: Juan Ansuátegui Roca (Spain)

31 March 1997

17:00 UTC+2

Luxembourg	0–3	Israel
	Report	Zohar 11', 79' Banin 56' (pen.)

Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City

Attendance: 6,607

Referee: René Temmink (Netherlands)

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2 April 1997

18:00 UTC+3

Bulgaria	4–1	Cyprus
Borimirov 2' Kostadinov 35', 45' Yordanov 66'	Report	Okkas 62'

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 33,000

Referee: Serge Muhmenthaler (Switzerland)

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30 April 1997

19:00 UTC+3

Russia	3–0	Luxembourg
Kechinov 20' Grishin 55' Simutenkov 58'	Report

Dinamo Stadium, Moscow

Attendance: 9,200

Referee: John Rowbotham (Scotland)

30 April 1997

18:00 UTC+3

Israel	2–0	Cyprus
Ohana 3', 72'	Report

Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan

Attendance: 32,000

Referee: Vasyl Melnychuk (Ukraine)

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8 June 1997

20:00 UTC+3

Bulgaria	4–0	Luxembourg
Stoichkov 43' (pen.) Kostadinov 47' Balakov 50' (pen.) Lechkov 81'	Report

Neftochimik Stadium, Burgas

Attendance: 19,000

Referee: Lucílio Batista (Portugal)

8 June 1997

19:00 UTC+3

Russia	2–0	Israel
Radimov 8' Kosolapov 38'	Report

Dinamo Stadium, Moscow

Attendance: 22,000

Referee: Gerd Grabher (Austria)

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20 August 1997

20:00 UTC+3

Bulgaria	1–0	Israel
Penev 65'	Report

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 32,000

Referee: Sándor Piller (Hungary)

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7 September 1997

17:00 UTC+2

Luxembourg	1–3	Cyprus
Amodio 14'	Report	Papavasiliou 6' Ioannou 55', 79'

Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg City

Attendance: 3,022

Referee: Gylfi Thor Orrason (Iceland)

10 September 1997

19:30 UTC+3

Bulgaria	1–0	Russia
Ivanov 55'	Report

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 55,000

Referee: Václav Krondl (Czech Republic)

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11 October 1997

19:00 UTC+3

Russia	4–2	Bulgaria
Alenichev 13', 57' Kolyvanov 41' Yuran 52'	Report	Gruev 68' Kostadinov 78'

Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow

Attendance: 19,000

Referee: Pierluigi Pairetto (Italy)

11 October 1997

19:00 UTC+3

Cyprus	2–0	Luxembourg
Papavasiliou 79' Spoljaric 85'	Report

Tsirion Stadium, Limassol

Attendance: 4,000

Referee: Bujar Pregja (Albania)

Goalscorers

There were 58 goals scored in 20 matches, for an average of 2.9 goals per match.

6 goals

• Emil Kostadinov

4 goals

• Krasimir Balakov

3 goals

• Siniša Gogić
• Eli Ohana
• Igor Kolyvanov

2 goals

• Yiannos Iouannou
• Nikodimos Papavasiliou
• Tal Banin
• Itzik Zohar
• Dmitri Alenichev
• Vladimir Beschastnykh
• Yuriy Nikiforov
• Igor Simutenkov

1 goal

• Daniel Borimirov
• Ilia Gruev
• Ilian Iliev
• Trifon Ivanov
• Yordan Lechkov
• Luboslav Penev
• Hristo Stoichkov
• Ivaylo Yordanov
• Ioannis Okkas
• Charalambos Pittas
• Milenko Špoljarić
• Gadi Brumer
• Ronen Harazi
• Paolo Amodio
• Robby Langers
• Sergey Grishin
• Andrei Kanchelskis
• Valeri Karpin
• Valery Kechinov
• Alexei Kosolapov
• Vladislav Radimov
• Andrey Tikhonov
• Sergei Yuran

Notes

1. Only 49 of the entered teams actually competed in the qualification tournament: France qualified for the World Cup automatically as host.