2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group G

The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification UEFA Group G is one of the nine UEFA groups for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification. The group consists of six teams: Spain, Italy, Albania, Israel, Macedonia, and Liechtenstein.

The draw for the first round (group stage) was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The group winners will qualify directly for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Among the nine group runners-up, the eight best runners-up will advance to the play-offs, where they will be drawn into four home-and-away ties to determine the other four qualifiers.

Standings

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification tiebreakers

In home-and-away league format, the ranking of teams in each group is based on the following criteria (regulations Articles 20.6 and 20.7): Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss) Goal difference Goals scored Points in matches between tied teams Goal difference in matches between tied teams Goals scored in matches between tied teams Away goals scored in matches between tied teams (if the tie is only between two teams) Play-off match(es) on neutral ground (if approved by FIFA Organizing Committee), with extra time and penalty shoot-out if necessary

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
Spain	6	5	1	0	21	3	+18	16	Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup
Italy	6	5	1	0	18	4	+14	16	Possible Second round
Albania	6	3	0	3	7	8	−1	9
Israel	6	3	0	3	9	12	−3	9
North Macedonia (E)	6	1	0	5	8	13	−5	3
Liechtenstein (E)	6	0	0	6	1	24	−23	0

Matches

The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 26 July 2015, the day following the draw. Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times are in parentheses).

5 September 2016 (2016-09-05) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Albania	2–1	North Macedonia	Loro Boriçi Stadium, Shkodër Attendance: 14,667 Referee: Hüseyin Göçek (Turkey)
	Sadiku  9' Balaj  89'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Alioski  51'

5 September 2016 (2016-09-05) 20:45 (21:45 UTC+3)	Israel	1–3	Italy	Sammy Ofer Stadium, Haifa Attendance: 29,300 Referee: Sergei Karasev (Russia)
	Ben Haim II  35'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Pellè  14' Candreva  31' (pen.) Immobile  83'

5 September 2016 (2016-09-05) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Spain	8–0	Liechtenstein	Estadio Reino de León, León Attendance: 12,139 Referee: Simon Lee Evans (Wales)
	Costa  10', 66' Roberto  55' Silva  59', 90+1' Vitolo  60' Morata  82', 83'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

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6 October 2016 (2016-10-06) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Italy	1–1	Spain	Juventus Stadium, Turin Attendance: 38,470 Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)
	De Rossi  82' (pen.)	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Vitolo  55'

6 October 2016 (2016-10-06) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Liechtenstein	0–2	Albania	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz Attendance: 5,864 Referee: Tamás Bognar (Hungary)
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Jehle  12' (o.g.) Balaj  71'

6 October 2016 (2016-10-06) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	North Macedonia	1–2	Israel	Philip II Arena, Skopje Attendance: 6,500 Referee: Andre Marriner (England)
	Nestorovski  63'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Hemed  25' Ben Haim II  43'

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9 October 2016 (2016-10-09) 18:00 (19:00 UTC+3)	Israel	2–1	Liechtenstein	Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem Attendance: 9,000 Referee: Clayton Pisani (Malta)
	Hemed  4', 16'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Göppel  49'

9 October 2016 (2016-10-09) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Albania	0–2	Spain	Loro Boriçi Stadium, Shkodër Attendance: 15,245 Referee: Bas Nijhuis (Netherlands)
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Costa  55' Nolito  63'

9 October 2016 (2016-10-09) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	North Macedonia	2–3	Italy	Philip II Arena, Skopje Attendance: 19,195 Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)
	Nestorovski  57' Hasani  59'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Belotti  24' Immobile  75', 90+2'

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12 November 2016 (2016-11-12) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+1)	Albania	0–3	Israel	Elbasan Arena, Elbasan Attendance: 7,600 Referee: Deniz Aytekin (Germany)
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Zahavi  18' (pen.) Einbinder  66' Atar  83'

12 November 2016 (2016-11-12) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+1)	Liechtenstein	0–4	Italy	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz Attendance: 5,864 Referee: Ivan Bebek (Croatia)
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Belotti  11', 44' Immobile  12' Candreva  32'

12 November 2016 (2016-11-12) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+1)	Spain	4–0	North Macedonia	Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes, Granada Attendance: 16,622 Referee: Robert Schörgenhofer (Austria)
	Velkovski  34' (o.g.) Vitolo  63' Monreal  84' Aduriz  85'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

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24 March 2017 (2017-03-24) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+1)	Italy	2–0	Albania	Stadio Renzo Barbera, Palermo Attendance: 33,136 Referee: Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia)
	De Rossi  12' (pen.) Immobile  80'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

24 March 2017 (2017-03-24) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+1)	Liechtenstein	0–3	North Macedonia	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz Attendance: 4,517 Referee: Jonathan Lardot (Belgium)
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Nikolov  43' Nestorovski  68', 73'

24 March 2017 (2017-03-24) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+1)	Spain	4–1	Israel	El Molinón, Gijón Attendance: 20,321 Referee: Michael Oliver (England)
	Silva  13' Vitolo  45+1' Costa  51' Isco  88'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Refaelov  76'

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11 June 2017 (2017-06-11) 20:45 (21:45 UTC+3)	Israel	0–3	Albania	Sammy Ofer Stadium, Haifa Referee: Aleksei Kulbakov (Belarus)
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Sadiku  22', 44' Memushaj  71'

11 June 2017 (2017-06-11) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Italy	5–0	Liechtenstein	Stadio Friuli, Udine Referee: Kevin Clancy (Scotland)
	Insigne  35' Belotti  52' Éder  75' Bernardeschi  83' Gabbiadini  90+1'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

11 June 2017 (2017-06-11) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	North Macedonia	1–2	Spain	Philip II Arena, Skopje Referee: Paweł Gil (Poland)
	Ristovski  66'	Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)	Silva  15' Costa  27'

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2 September 2017 (2017-09-02) 18:00 (18:00 UTC+2)	Albania	v	Liechtenstein	Elbasan Arena, Elbasan
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

2 September 2017 (2017-09-02) 20:45 (21:45 UTC+3)	Israel	v	North Macedonia	Sammy Ofer Stadium, Haifa
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

2 September 2017 (2017-09-02) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Spain	v	Italy	Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

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5 September 2017 (2017-09-05) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Italy	v	Israel	Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore, Reggio Emilia
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

5 September 2017 (2017-09-05) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Liechtenstein	v	Spain	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

5 September 2017 (2017-09-05) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	North Macedonia	v	Albania	Philip II Arena, Skopje
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

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6 October 2017 (2017-10-06) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Italy	v	North Macedonia
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

6 October 2017 (2017-10-06) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Liechtenstein	v	Israel	Rheinpark Stadion, Vaduz
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

6 October 2017 (2017-10-06) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Spain	v	Albania
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

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9 October 2017 (2017-10-09) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	Albania	v	Italy	Loro Boriçi Stadium, Shkodër
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

9 October 2017 (2017-10-09) 20:45 (21:45 UTC+3)	Israel	v	Spain	Sammy Ofer Stadium, Haifa
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

9 October 2017 (2017-10-09) 20:45 (20:45 UTC+2)	North Macedonia	v	Liechtenstein	Philip II Arena, Skopje
		Report (FIFA) Report (UEFA)

Goalscorers

There have been 64 goals scored in 18 matches, for an average of 3.56 goals per match.

5 goals

• Ciro Immobile
• Diego Costa

4 goals

• Andrea Belotti
• Ilija Nestorovski
• David Silva
• Vitolo

3 goals

• Armando Sadiku
• Tomer Hemed

2 goals

• Bekim Balaj
• Tal Ben Haim II
• Antonio Candreva
• Daniele De Rossi
• Álvaro Morata

1 goal

• Ledian Memushaj
• Eliran Atar
• Dan Einbinder
• Lior Refaelov
• Eran Zahavi
• Federico Bernardeschi
• Éder
• Manolo Gabbiadini
• Lorenzo Insigne
• Graziano Pellè
• Maximilian Göppel
• Ezgjan Alioski
• Ferhan Hasani
• Boban Nikolov
• Stefan Ristovski
• Aritz Aduriz
• Isco
• Nacho Monreal
• Nolito
• Sergi Roberto

1 own goal

• Peter Jehle (against Albania)
• Darko Velkovski (against Spain)

Discipline

A player is automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:

• Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious offences)
• Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches (yellow card suspensions are carried forward to the play-offs, but not the finals or any other future international matches)

The following suspensions were (or will be) served during the qualifying matches:

Player	Team	Offence(s)	Suspended for match(es)
Giorgio Chiellini	Italy	vs Israel (5 September 2016)	vs Spain (6 October 2016)
Eytan Tibi	Israel	vs Macedonia (6 October 2016)	vs Liechtenstein (9 October 2016)
Nicolas Hasler	Liechtenstein	vs Spain (5 September 2016) vs Israel (9 October 2016)	vs Italy (12 November 2016)
Marco Parolo	Italy	vs Spain (6 October 2016) vs Macedonia (9 October 2016)	vs Liechtenstein (12 November 2016)
Etrit Berisha	Albania	vs Israel (12 November 2016)	vs Italy (24 March 2017)
Berat Djimsiti	Albania	vs Israel (12 November 2016)	vs Italy (24 March 2017)
David Goresh	Israel	vs Macedonia (6 October 2016) vs Albania (12 November 2016)	vs Spain (24 March 2017)
Daniel Kaufmann	Liechtenstein	vs Spain (5 September 2016) vs Italy (12 November 2016)	vs Macedonia (24 March 2017)
Yves Oehri	Liechtenstein	vs Albania (6 October 2016) vs Italy (12 November 2016)	vs Macedonia (24 March 2017)
Ezgjan Alioski	North Macedonia	vs Italy (9 October 2016) vs Spain (12 November 2016)	vs Liechtenstein (24 March 2017)
Ansi Agolli	Albania	vs Spain (9 October 2016) vs Italy (24 March 2017)	vs Israel (11 June 2017)
Michele Polverino	Liechtenstein	vs Spain (5 September 2016) vs Italy (11 June 2017)	vs Albania (2 September 2017)

External links

• Official website
  • Qualifiers – Europe: Round 1, FIFA.com
• FIFA World Cup, UEFA.com
  • Standings – Qualifying round: Group G, UEFA.com