Group 7. The odd European group from which only one team was going to the finals, so it was made a small group of only three teams. Malta did not count, so it was the direct battle between the other two going to decide the finalist – by now Poland lost its shine, acquired in 1974; DDR never had any, so it was, theoretically, unpredictable battle between two equal teams. When the two back to back legs between came everything fell into place: Poland was stronger, although not overwhelmingly – they won both important matches by a goal and qualified without losing even a point, just like West Germany.
1.Poland^ 4 8 4 0 0 12- 2
2.DDR 4 4 2 0 2 9- 6
3.Malta 4 0 0 0 4 2-15
Going to the world finals for a third consecutive time. However, not as a favourites and the picture shows why: this is the squad at early stage against Malta, which means some regulars were not needed. What was behind the bunch of stars, most of whom made their names in 1974, was problematic. Poland was weaker, it was obvious since the 1978 World Cup that there was no new great generation. Of course, Iwan and Smolarek were yet unknown.
The general feeling of after the qualifications was that Europe got more than it deserved: not only there were no strong teams left behind, but some second raters qualified. The increase of the finalists was a bit suspect at this points – after all, only Holland missed the boat. But Holland was in a decline. West Germany, Belgium, France, to a point Yugoslavia and Austria, were currently strong, but the others were either not improving, or shaky, or lucky, or unknown quality. What was mostly satisfied were traditional reputation and clout. Well, what could be a World Cup without Italy, England, USSR, Hungary, Czechoslovakia? Since all depends on form and current talent, names mean nothing – but football ignores reality, ever.