Following qualification matches between June 2011 and November 2013, the following 32 teams – shown with their final pre-tournament FIFA World Rankings– qualified for the final tournament. This marks the return of Croatia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Iran after they missed the 2010 edition. Colombia qualified for the World Cup after 16 years of absence. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only team with no previous World Cup Finals experience.Only three top-25 ranked teams did not qualify for the tournament: Ukraine (16), Denmark (23) and Slovenia (25).
Paraguay failed to qualify for the finals for the first time since 1994. A further 6 teams who had participated at the 2010 FIFA World Cup also failed to qualify: South Africa, North Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Denmark and New Zealand. It is also the first time since 2002 that no OFC team will be among the finalists as New Zealand were eliminated by Mexico in the OFC-CONCACAF play-offplay-off.
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