2010 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 8

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

The 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification UEFA Group 8 was a UEFA qualifying group for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The group comprised 2006 FIFA World Cup winner Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro.

The group was won by Italy, who qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The runners-up the Republic of Ireland entered the UEFA play-off stage.^[1]

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Italy	10	7	3	0	18	7	+11	24	Qualification to 2010 FIFA World Cup		—	1–1	2–0	3–2	2–1	2–0
2	Republic of Ireland	10	4	6	0	12	8	+4	18	Advance to second round		2–2	—	1–1	1–0	0–0	2–1
3	Bulgaria	10	3	5	2	17	13	+4	14			0–0	1–1	—	2–0	4–1	6–2
4	Cyprus	10	2	3	5	14	16	−2	9			1–2	1–2	4–1	—	2–2	2–1
5	Montenegro	10	1	6	3	9	14	−5	9			0–2	0–0	2–2	1–1	—	2–1
6	Georgia	10	0	3	7	7	19	−12	3			0–2	1–2	0–0	1–1	0–0	—

Source: ^[1]

Matches

The representatives of the six federations met in Sofia, Bulgaria on 15 January 2008 to decide on a fixture calendar.^[2]

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Georgia	1–2	Republic of Ireland
Kenia 90+2'	Report	Doyle 13' Whelan 70'

6 September 2008

18:00 UTC+2

Stadion am Bruchweg, Mainz (Germany)^{[note 1]}

Attendance: 4,500

Referee: Sándor Andó-Szabó (Hungary)

Montenegro	2–2	Bulgaria
Vučinić 61' Jovetić 82' (pen.)	Report	S. Petrov 11' Georgiev 90+2'

6 September 2008

20:00 UTC+2

Pod Goricom, Podgorica

Attendance: 9,000

Referee: Oleh Oriekhov (Ukraine)

Cyprus	1–2	Italy
Aloneftis 28'	Report	Di Natale 8', 90+2'

6 September 2008

21:45 UTC+3

Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Larnaca

Attendance: 6,000

Referee: Pieter Vink (Netherlands)

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Montenegro	0–0	Republic of Ireland
	Report

10 September 2008

19:00 UTC+2

Pod Goricom, Podgorica

Attendance: 12,000

Referee: Sten Kaldma (Estonia)

Italy	2–0	Georgia
De Rossi 17', 89'	Report

10 September 2008

20:50 UTC+2

Stadio Friuli, Udine

Attendance: 27,164

Referee: Thomas Einwaller (Austria)

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Georgia	1–1	Cyprus
Kobiashvili 73'	Report	Konstantinou 66'

11 October 2008

20:30 UTC+4

Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi

Attendance: 40,000

Referee: Radek Matějek (Czech Republic)

Bulgaria	0–0	Italy
	Report

11 October 2008

21:15 UTC+3

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 35,000

Referee: Stéphane Lannoy (France)

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Georgia	0–0	Bulgaria
	Report

15 October 2008

20:30 UTC+4

Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi

Attendance: 35,250

Referee: Björn Kuipers (Netherlands)

Republic of Ireland	1–0	Cyprus
Keane 5'	Report

15 October 2008

19:45 UTC+1

Croke Park, Dublin

Attendance: 55,833

Referee: Alexandru Tudor (Romania)

Italy	2–1	Montenegro
Aquilani 8', 29'	Report	Vučinić 19'

15 October 2008

20:50 UTC+2

Via del Mare, Lecce

Attendance: 20,162

Referee: Pedro Proença (Portugal)

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Republic of Ireland	2–1	Georgia
Keane 73' (pen.), 78'	Report	Iashvili 1'

11 February 2009

19:45 UTC+0

Croke Park, Dublin

Attendance: 45,000

Referee: Jouni Hyytiä (Finland)

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Cyprus	2–1	Georgia
Konstantinou 33' Christofi 56'	Report	Kobiashvili 71' (pen.)

28 March 2009

20:00 UTC+2

Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Larnaca

Attendance: 1,500

Referee: Fredy Fautrel (France)

Montenegro	0–2	Italy
	Report	Pirlo 11' (pen.) Pazzini 73'

28 March 2009

20:45 UTC+1

Pod Goricom, Podgorica

Attendance: 10,500

Referee: Martin Atkinson (England)

Republic of Ireland	1–1	Bulgaria
Dunne 1'	Report	Kilbane 74' (o.g.)

28 March 2009

19:45 UTC+0

Croke Park, Dublin

Attendance: 60,002

Referee: Ivan Bebek (Croatia)

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Bulgaria	2–0	Cyprus
Popov 8' Makriev 90+4'	Report

1 April 2009

18:00 UTC+3

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 16,916

Referee: Martin Ingvarsson (Sweden)

Georgia	0–0	Montenegro
	Report

1 April 2009

21:00 UTC+4

Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi

Attendance: 16,000

Referee: David Malcolm (Northern Ireland)

Italy	1–1	Republic of Ireland
Iaquinta 10'	Report	Keane 87'

1 April 2009

20:50 UTC+2

Stadio San Nicola, Bari

Attendance: 48,000

Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)

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Bulgaria	1–1	Republic of Ireland
Telkiyski 29'	Report	Dunne 24'

6 June 2009

20:30 UTC+3

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 38,000

Referee: Claus Bo Larsen (Denmark)

Cyprus	2–2	Montenegro
Konstantinou 13' Michael 45' (pen.)	Report	Damjanović 65', 77'

6 June 2009

20:30 UTC+3

Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Larnaca

Attendance: 3,000

Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain)

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Bulgaria	4–1	Montenegro
Kishishev 45+1' Telkiyski 49' Berbatov 83' (pen.) Domovchiyski 90+1'	Report	Jovetić 9'

5 September 2009

20:30 UTC+3

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 7,543

Referee: Tony Asumaa (Finland)

Georgia	0–2	Italy
	Report	Kaladze 56' (o.g.), 66' (o.g.)

5 September 2009

22:00 UTC+4

Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi

Attendance: 32,000

Referee: Marcin Borski (Poland)

Cyprus	1–2	Republic of Ireland
Elia 30'	Report	Doyle 5' Keane 83'

5 September 2009

21:30 UTC+3

GSP Stadium, Nicosia

Attendance: 5,191

Referee: Thomas Einwaller (Austria)

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Montenegro	1–1	Cyprus
Vučinić 56' (pen.)	Report	Okkas 63'

9 September 2009

20:15 UTC+2

Pod Goricom, Podgorica

Attendance: 4,000

Referee: Carlo Bertolini (Switzerland)

Italy	2–0	Bulgaria
Grosso 11' Iaquinta 40'	Report

9 September 2009

20:50 UTC+2

Stadio Olimpico, Turin

Attendance: 26,122

Referee: Florian Meyer (Germany)

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Cyprus	4–1	Bulgaria
Charalambides 11', 20' Konstantinou 58' Aloneftis 78'	Report	Berbatov 44'

10 October 2009

20:00 UTC+3

Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Larnaca

Attendance: 3,700

Referee: Paul Allaerts (Belgium)

Montenegro	2–1	Georgia
Batak 13' Delibašić 78'	Report	Dvalishvili 45'

10 October 2009

19:00 UTC+2

Pod Goricom, Podgorica

Attendance: 5,420

Referee: Selçuk Dereli (Turkey)

Republic of Ireland	2–2	Italy
Whelan 8' St Ledger 87'	Report	Camoranesi 26' Gilardino 90'

10 October 2009

20:00 UTC+1

Croke Park, Dublin

Attendance: 70,670

Referee: Terje Hauge (Norway)

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Bulgaria	6–2	Georgia
Berbatov 6', 23', 35' M. Petrov 14', 44' Angelov 31'	Report	Dvalishvili 34' Kobiashvili 51' (pen.)

14 October 2009

21:00 UTC+3

Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia

Attendance: 700

Referee: Kristinn Jakobsson (Iceland)

Italy	3–2	Cyprus
Gilardino 78', 81', 90+2'	Report	Makrides 12' Michael 48'

14 October 2009

20:00 UTC+2

Stadio Ennio Tardini, Parma

Attendance: 15,009

Referee: Alon Yefet (Israel)

Republic of Ireland	0–0	Montenegro
	Report

14 October 2009

19:00 UTC+1

Croke Park, Dublin

Attendance: 36,442

Referee: Vladimír Hriňák (Slovakia)

Notes

1. Originally scheduled for Tbilisi, Georgia but moved to neutral venue due to the 2008 South Ossetia war. The original replacement venue was the Wildparkstadion in Karlsruhe, Germany, but the ground became unavailable, so it was moved to the Stadion am Bruchweg in Mainz.^[3]

Goalscorers

There were 77 goals scored in 30 matches, for an average of 2.57 goals per match.

5 goals

• Dimitar Berbatov
• Robbie Keane

4 goals

• Michalis Konstantinou
• Alberto Gilardino

3 goals

• Levan Kobiashvili
• Mirko Vučinić

2 goals

• Dimitar Telkiyski
• Martin Petrov
• Efstathios Aloneftis
• Constantinos Charalambides
• Chrysis Michael
• Ioannis Okkas
• Vladimir Dvalishvili
• Richard Dunne
• Kevin Doyle
• Glenn Whelan
• Alberto Aquilani
• Daniele De Rossi
• Antonio Di Natale
• Vincenzo Iaquinta
• Dejan Damjanović
• Stevan Jovetić

1 goal

• Stanislav Angelov
• Valeri Domovchiyski
• Blagoy Georgiev
• Radostin Kishishev
• Dimitar Ivanov Makriev
• Stiliyan Petrov
• Ivelin Popov
• Demetris Christofi
• Marios Elia
• Alexander Iashvili
• Levan Kenia
• Mauro Camoranesi
• Fabio Grosso
• Giampaolo Pazzini
• Andrea Pirlo
• Seán St Ledger
• Radoslav Batak
• Andrija Delibašić

1 own goal

• Kevin Kilbane (against Bulgaria)

2 own goals

• Kakha Kaladze (against Italy)

Attendances

Team	Highest	Lowest	Average
Bulgaria	45,000	700	22,432
Cyprus	6,000	1,500	3,878
Georgia	40,000	4,500	25,550
Italy	48,000	15,009	27,291
Montenegro	12,000	4,000	8,184
Republic of Ireland	70,670	36,442	53,589