2002 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group 5

The six teams in this group played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner Poland qualified for the 17th FIFA World Cup held in South Korea and Japan. The runner-up Ukraine advanced to the UEFA Play-off and played against Germany. Poland led the group from the start, with six wins and two draws out of eight, with Ukraine in second place: however, with group victory already sewn up, they unexpectedly went down 4–1 to Belarus, which gave the Belarusians a chance of overtaking Ukraine if they won their final match against Wales and Ukraine failed to win in Poland. However, Belarus failed to reproduce the form of their previous match, and lost 1–0 to hand Wales their only victory of the campaign, Ukraine thus finishing second regardless of their result in Poland (a 1–1 draw).