Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland side will find out this Monday who they’ll be facing in their qualifying campaign for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Before they have a chance of getting to Qatar, it will be all eyes on Zurich tomorrow evening with the draw slated for 5pm.
What pot are Ireland in?
There are 55 teams seeded for the qualifiers and Ireland find themselves in Pot 3.
Had Ireland managed to score against Bulgaria last month, we would have wound up in Pot 2 thanks to a higher European ranking. Alas, it wasn’t to be and we are where we are.
Pot 1: Belgium, France, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands
Pot 2: Switzerland, Wales, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Slovakia, Romania
Pot 3: Russia, Hungary, Republic Of Ireland, Czech Republic, Norway, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, Greece, Finland
Pot 4: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Israel, Belarus, Georgia, Luxembourg
Pot 5: Armenia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Latvia, Andorra
Making the draw and getting through
To divide out the 55 nations, there will be five groups of six teams (30) and five groups of five (25).
Making the draw is one thing, qualifying is another.
Across the ten groups group winners will automatically qualify. 12 more teams, comprising the ten runners-up and the two top ranking Nations League group winners will contest the playoffs.
Nothing is plain sailing mind, with those 12 teams split into three groups of four to create semi-finals and finals, ultimately three teams qualifying for the World Cup.
There’s just 13 teams to qualify from Europe in 2022. We’re not in the top 13.
For Ireland, there are two ways to qualify – top the group, or worst case finish second, then win a semi-final and final fixture.
It’s a tough ask considering recent international performances.
Ireland’s qualifying fixtures
Qualifying begins in March 2021 with three games played off from 24-31 March.
All going to plan, qualifiers finish in November with playoffs scheduled for March 2022.
There are plenty of permutations for who Ireland could face, but we won’t have to wait long.
Set your alarms for 5pm Monday or check back here after the draw for the full details. If it all goes wrong, you can blame Daniele De Rossi and Rafael van der Vaart, the Italian and Dutch icons responsible for drawing the groups in Zurich.