 More games on which good results had been gained was a win against Poland, starting the qualifying campaign for the European Championships, as well as a sound defeat of the Bulgarian national team without their star Hristo Stoichkov, again in the first match of the qualifying round, this time for the World Cup in France, with the presence of a strong crowd in their home stadium of Ramat Gan.Scharf's top achievement came when long-time nemesis Austria was defeated, with an impressive score of 5-0, Israel's biggest competitive win against an arguably stronger team.On the negative side were both losses to Cyprus as visitors, as well as the humiliation against Denmark in the Euro 2000 playoffs, which ended the experienced trainer's spell as the national team's manager.