1978 FIFA World Cup Group A 1978 FIFA World Cup Group A Group A of the 1978 FIFA World Cup was one of two groups of nations competing for the De facto semifinals the 1978 FIFA World Cup. The group's first round of matches began on 14 June and its last matches were played on 21 June. All six group matches were played either at the Estadio Chateau Carreras in Córdoba, or the Estadio Monumental in the capital Buenos Aires. The group consisted of West Germany (the Defending Champions) as well as the Netherlands (the former runners up), Italy and Austria. The Netherlands advanced to the
2006 FIFA World Cup qualification points in each group would qualify to the World Cup. The runners up would be ranked. For the sake of fairness, in groups with seven teams, results against the seventh placed team were ignored. The two best ranked runners up would also qualify to the World Cup. The other six runners up were drawn into three home and away knock out matches, winners of those matches also qualifying. Sweden and Poland qualified directly to the World Cup. The other teams had to play off. A draw was held on 14 October 2005 at FIFA headquarters in Zürich to pair each