The five teams in this group played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner Spain qualified for the 17th FIFA World Cup held in South Korea and Japan. The runner-up Austria advanced to the UEFA Play-off and played against Turkey. Spain dominated the group, with six wins out of eight, and only two away draws (against second-placed Austria and third-placed Israel) to mar the record. Second place, however, was not decided until the last minute of the last match: Austria had a three-point advantage, but Israel led 1-0 which would have brought them level in the group standings, and had a superior goal difference which would have seen them into second place, but Austria scored an injury-time equalizer to earn a draw and retain their second position.
^The game was originally scheduled for 7 October 2001. On 4 October FIFA announced postponement of the match for safety reasons after a plane departed from Tel Aviv crashed in the Black Sea.[2]