The

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

– AFC qualification play-off was a

two-legged In sports (especially association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum of ...

home-and-away tie between a group runner-up of the European qualifying tournament, the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

, and the winners of the AFC play-off,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. The games were played on 10 November and 15 November 2001 in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

and

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, respectively. Ireland beat Iran 2–0 in the first leg held in Dublin, while in the second leg, Iran defeated Ireland 1–0 in Tehran. The Irish side won the series 2–1 on aggregate, therefore qualifying to the World Cup.

Venues

Background

Match details

First leg

----

Second leg

Aftermath

The elimination saw Iran manager

Miroslav Blažević Miroslav "Ćiro" Blažević (; 9 February 1935 – 8 February 2023) was a Bosnian-Croatian professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and Football player, player. A former right winger, his professional ...

step down to be replaced by his assistant,

Branko Ivanković Branko Ivanković (; born 28 February 1954) is a Croatian association football, football manager (association football), manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He was most recently the head coach of the China national football team ...

. The Republic of Ireland qualified to the

and were drawn into Group E with

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. They drew with Cameroon and Germany with a score of 1–1 and in the final match, they won 3–0 against Saudi Arabia. This qualified them to the Round of 16 but they were eliminated by Spain on penalties (2–3) after the match ended in a 1–1 draw.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2002 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA-AFC play-off)

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

Play-off UEFA-AFC

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Republic of Ireland national football team matches Iran national football team matches qual November 2001 sports events in Europe November 2001 sports events in Asia 2000s in Dublin (city) 2000s in Tehran

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Sport in Tehran International association football competitions hosted by the Republic of Ireland International association football competitions hosted by Iran