| 1994 Fifa World Cup (qualification) |
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OVERVIEW An entry of close to 150 countries, nearly 500 matches and once again more goals than in the past twenty years - these were the figures of the biggest World Cup preliminary in 60 years. Two of Europe's big names failed to make the finals: England conceded an embarrassing goal after a few seconds in their final match in San Marino and although they won 7-1 in the end they were unable to overtake the Netherlands in the group, who qualified along with group winners Norway. In Group 6, France looked to be heading comfortably for the top spot two matches before the end, but lost surprisingly at home to Israel and then was beaten away by Bulgaria, thanks to a Kostadinov counter-strike in the dying seconds. It was thus Bulgaria who squeezed into second place and accompanied Sweden to the USA . Helped by good results against group winners Italy, Switzerland also qualified for the first time in nearly thirty years. In South America the only team to come through convincingly were Colombia, undefeated in their group and ahead of Argentina. In the other group Brazil and Bolivia only managed to secure definite qualification in their very last matches. Argentina had to go into a play-off against Oceania winners Australia and were on a knife's edge until a narrow 1-0 home win got them through. In Africa it was Nigeria (first time for them), Morocco, and Cameroon who qualified, but it was a close battle for all three against the second team in their groups. In a dramatic final in Qatar , Japan let a safe-looking qualification slip away from them at the last minute. After a 2-2 draw against Iraq , Saudi Arabia and Korea Republic (only on Goal Difference ) finally edged out Japan. After slipping up in Costa Rica and El Salvador , Mexico earned their passage in the direct encounter with their closest rivals Canada. CONTINENTAL ZONES To see the dates and results for each game in each Continental Zone, please click one of the following links: Europe South America North, Central America And Caribbean Asia Africa Oceania INTERCONTINENTAL PLAY-OFFS For the first time, the Intercontinental Play-offs would be divided in two Rounds. In the First Round, the runner-up of the Final Round from North, Central America and Caribbean would play against the best team from Oceania, home-and-away. The winner would play against the runner-up of Group 1 from South America, again home-and-away, in the Final Round. The winner of the Final Round would qualify to the World Cup. First Round July 31 , 1993 , Edmonton , Canada - 2 - 1 August 15 , 1993 , Sydney , Australia - 2 - 1 ''Australia'' won 4-1 on Penalties and advanced to the Final Round. Final Round October 31 , 1993 , Sydney , Australia - 1 - 1 November 17 , 1993 , Buenos Aires , Argentina - 1 - 0 Argentina qualified. QUALIFIED TEAMS (h) - qualified automatically as hosts (c) - qualified automatically as defending champions 1Includes 10 appearances by ''DFB'' representing West Germany between 1954 and 1990. 2Excludes appearances by USSR . If those are counted together, this is their 8th appearance and 4th in a row, and their previous appearance was in 1990 . NOTES
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