{"id":147174,"date":"2025-11-18T22:31:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/147174\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:31:07","slug":"ireland-placed-in-pot-3-for-world-cup-qualifier-draw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/147174\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland placed in pot 3 for World Cup qualifier draw"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republic of Ireland will face either Poland, Wales, Czechia or Slovakia in the World Cup 2026 qualifier in March.<\/p>\n

With the completion of the final round of group games this evening, Ireland were left in pot 3 of the draw, having previously hoped to be in pot 2.<\/p>\n

Ireland were hoping that North Macedonia could avoid defeat to Wales along with Austria taking a point or better against Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n

While Austria and Bosnia and Herzegovina played out a 1-1 draw, Wales hammered North Macedonia 7-1 and they will take their place in pot 2 at Ireland’s expense.<\/p>\n

Ireland will play either Poland, Wales, Czechia or Slovakia away from home and should they come through that qualifier, with have a match against the winners of a game from a pot 1 versus pot 4 tie for a place at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Pot 1 Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Ukraine
Pot 2 Poland, Wales, Czechia, Slovakia
Pot 3 Ireland, Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo
Pot 4 Romania, Sweden, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland<\/p>\n

Skipper Harry Wilson scored a hat-trick as rampant Wales secured that home semi-final advantage.<\/p>\n

Wilson and David Brooks gave Wales a healthy first-half lead before Bojan Miovski replied instantly in a frenetic five-minute spell.<\/p>\n

Brennan Johnson restored the two-goal cushion before the break and Daniel James swept home before Wilson, who was captaining Wales for the first time, took centre stage.<\/p>\n

\"CARDIFF,
\nHarry Wilson scored a hat-trick for Wales as they demolished North Macedonia in Cardiff<\/p>\n

Wilson dispatched a fabulous free-kick before converting his second penalty of the night, and substitute Nathan Broadhead added late gloss as Wales struck seven for the first time 1978.<\/p>\n

Belgium sealed top spot and a seat at the 2026 World Cup with a 7-0 romp over group minnows Liechtenstein in Liege as Wales head into the March play-offs in fine spirits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Republic of Ireland will face either Poland, Wales, Czechia or Slovakia in the World Cup 2026 qualifier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-147174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}