each other twice. The group winners would advance to the Final Round. Final Round: The 2 teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner would advance to the AFC / OFC Intercontinental Play-off. Final positions (third round) |} UEFA A total of 50 UEFA teams entered the competition. The European zone was allocated 15 places (out of 32) in the final tournament. France, the hosts, qualified automatically, leaving 14 spots open for competition between 49 teams. The 49 teams were divided into nine groups, four groups of six teams and five groups of five teams. The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. The runners-up would be ranked according to their records against the 1st, 3rd and 4th-placed team in their groups, and the team with the best record would also qualify. The remaining runners-up would advance to the UEFA Play-offs. In the play-offs, the 8 teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would qualify. Final positions (first round) Play-offs |} Inter-confederation play-offs: AFC v OFC It was a two-legged home-and-away tie between the winners of the Oceania qualifying tournament, Australia, and the losing team in the AFC play-off from the Asian qualifying tournament, Iran. The games were played on 22 and 29 November 1997 in Tehran and Melbourne respectively. Australia was hoping to play in the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1974 and Iran in 1978. The second game is known in Iran as the Saga of Melbourne. Top goalscorers 19 goals Karim Bagheri 14 goals Kazuyoshi Miura Predrag Mijatović 12 goals Iván Zamorano 11 goals Marcelo Salas Carlos Hermosillo 6 goals Raúl Díaz Arce Ali Daei Choi Yong-soo Savo Milošević References External links FIFA World Cup official site - 1998 World Cup qualification RSSSF - 1998 World Cup Qualification Qualification FIFA World Cup qualification