Europe was the real tough qualification zone. However, it looks tough only when compared with the rest of the world – practically every European group had a clear outsider (some groups more than one) and there were in general two teams in a group really competing for a final place. Well, some groups did not have real favourite and appeared relatively equal, but there was a compensation - Italy had no real opponent in her group. I am not going into details for every group and will pay bigger attention to only four groups. The ‘easy’ groups first:
Group 1: What to say? Malta obviously was a punch bag. The other three countries finished with equal points. Hungary ended third on goal difference – and they did not lose a single match! Sweden and Austria had equal goal difference and had to play a play-off match in West Germany. Sweden won 2-1 in Gelzenkirchen.
1. Sweden 3 2 1 15-8 8
2 Austria 3 2 1 14-7 8
3. Hungary 2 4 0 12-7 8
4. Malta 0 0 6 1-20 0
With Hungary in decline and Austria in long decline, it is rather surprising that Sweden was unable to get clearly the upper hand. Middle of the road group, nobody expected future world champions to come from here.
Snow was no trouble for Sweden – Bo Larsson scores a penalty against Austria. Group 2: One horse race – Turkey, Switzerland, and Luxembourg were no problem for Italy. Which cemented the illusion about the state of Italian football. Dino Zoff registered a world record (I think still unbeaten) – between September 1972 and June 1974 he kept clean sheet in the national team. Italy did not allow a single goal – for 1142 minutes.
No wonder Zoff was voted number 2 European player in 1973, perhaps his finest season.
1. Italy 4 2 0 12-0 10
2. Turkey 2 2 2 5-3 6
3. Switzerland 2 2 2 2-4 6
4. Luxembourg 1 0 5 2-14 2
Italy was considered a prime candidate for the world title. Not only the Italians were blind – the rest of the world was blind too.
Group 4: East Germany won, a mild surprise. Nobody counted Finland and Albania and rightly so. Romania was in decline and, therefore, relatively equal teams contested the final spot.
1. DDR 5 0 1 18-3 10
2. Romania 4 1 1 17-4 9
3. Finland 1 1 4 3-21 3
4. Albania 1 0 5 3-13 2
Lost point to Finland doomed Romania, but no one expected anything great from whatever winner of Group 4.
DDR to the finals, Romania stays at home.
Group 8: Lucky Scots. Czechoslovakia was considered favourite and Denmark – the hopeless outsider. Well, the Czechoslovaks underperformed; the Scots played bravely, and the Danes decided who will go to the finals by sneaking their single point from Czechoslovakia.
1. Scotland 3 0 1 8-3 6
2. Czechoslovakia 2 1 1 9-3 5
3. Denmark 0 1 3 2-13 1
Nothing special here; Czechs in decline.
