The seedings for the UEFA qualification playoff for 2018 World Cup are now set in stone as the group stage of qualification concluded on Tuesday night.
In Lisbon, Portugal showed exactly why Irish fans had spent most of today saying things like 'I don't fancy the Portuguese I have to say' as they comfortably beat Switzerland 2-0 to overtake the previously unbeaten group leaders and book their place in Russia directly.
Holland needed to win by five clear goals against Sweden in Amsterdam but only managed a 2-0 win, and a routine 4-0 win for Greece against Gibraltar meant that there were no more permutations or confusion.
The playoff draw will take place at 1pm Irish time on Tuesday, October 17th and will feature the following teams:
Seeded: Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Denmark
Unseeded: Northern Ireland, Sweden, Republic of Ireland, Greece
This means that Ireland will be matched with one of Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, or Denmark.
While Cyrus Christie revealed that the players are confident of getting the job done no matter what, most fans will agree that Switzerland and Denmark being pulled out of the hat to play Ireland would be favourable to Italy or Croatia.
That said, we will believe in the boys in green no matter who we have to face.
Once the draw is made the fixtures will be played between November 9th-11th and then the return leg on the 12th-14th.
COYBIG!
