{"id":147269,"date":"2025-11-18T23:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/147269\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T23:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:44:09","slug":"ireland-to-face-poland-wales-czech-republic-or-slovakia-in-world-cup-playoff-semi-final-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/147269\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland to face Poland, Wales, Czech Republic or Slovakia in World Cup playoff semi-final \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republic of Ireland<\/a> will be away to one of Poland, Wales, the Czech Republic or Slovakia in a World Cup playoff semi-final next March.<\/p>\n

A 7-1 victory for Wales over North Macedonia in Cardiff confirmed Ireland will be in Pot 3 for Thursday\u2019s playoff draw in Zurich.<\/p>\n

By missing out on a place in Pot 2, Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a>\u2019s side will not have the benefit of a home semi-final in Dublin and must instead win on the road to keep their World Cup<\/a> hopes alive.<\/p>\n

They will be joined in Pot 3 by Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo.<\/p>\n

Pot 1 will be comprised of Italy, Denmark, Turkey and Ukraine, while Pot 2 is made up of Ireland\u2019s potential opponents, Poland, Wales, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.<\/p>\n

The four teams in Pot 4 \u2013 Romania, Sweden, North Macedonia and Northern Ireland \u2013 qualified for the playoffs via the Nations League.<\/p>\n

Two injury-time goals in Hampden Park on Tuesday night earned Scotland a sensational 4-2 victory over Denmark to qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time since 1998.<\/p>\n

\"KieranKieran Tierney (6) of Scotland celebrates scoring his team’s third goal with head coach Steve Clarke in Glasgow last night. Photo: Ian MacNicol\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Kieran Tierney\u2019s magnificent 93rd-minute curler from outside the box edged Scotland ahead before Kenny McLean\u2019s jaw-dropping strike from the halfway line guaranteed the home side would leapfrog the Danes to top of Group C.<\/p>\n

But Ireland\u2019s main focus was on events in Cardiff, where a hat-trick from captain Harry Wilson helped Wales hammer North Macedonia 7-1 to secure second place in Group J. Wales (34th in the Fifa world rankings) are well ahead of Ireland (62nd) in the rankings, claiming a spot in Pot 2 for Craig Bellamy\u2019s team. <\/p>\n

North Macedonia entered Tuesday\u2019s fixture ahead of Wales on scoring difference, so a draw would have been enough for Blagoja Milevski\u2019s outfit to edge out the Welsh for second place.<\/p>\n

That would have been the desired outcome from an Irish perspective too, as North Macedonia\u2019s ranking of 65th meant they would have been placed behind Ireland in the pot seedings.<\/p>\n

However, by half-time in Cardiff the outcome was all but confirmed as Wales led 3-1 after a dominant opening 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

Wilson opened the home side\u2019s account with a nicely placed 18th-minute penalty. Just three minutes later David Brooks, who had been fouled for the spot kick, doubled their lead.<\/p>\n

North Macedonia responded immediately with Bojan Miovski capitalising on some slack defending to slide the ball home inside the near post, 2-1.<\/p>\n

\"NathanNathan Broadhead scores Wales’s seventh goal. Photograph: David Davies\/PA <\/p>\n

But Brennan Johnson killed off any thoughts of a comeback with a stunning right-footed strike to the top corner in the 37th minute. <\/p>\n

Daniel James made it 4-1 just before the hour mark, getting on the end of a neat back-heel before slipping the ball low to the far corner. Wilson curled home a sweet free from outside the box in the 75th minute to add a flourish to a brilliant night for Bellamy\u2019s men and he completed his hat-trick with another penalty in the 81st minute. Nathan Broadhead made it seven in the closing stages. <\/p>\n

Austria and Bosnia & Herzegovina played out a 1-1 draw in Vienna, meaning the home side finished top of the Group H table with the visitors finishing second.<\/p>\n

The four teams from Pot 1 on Thursday morning will be drawn against the four teams from Pot 4. The four teams from Pot 2 will be drawn against the four teams from Pot 3. The teams in Pot 1 and Pot 2, because of their better seeding, will have a home semi-final.<\/p>\n

Four paths to playoff finals will also be confirmed at Thursday\u2019s draw \u2013 Paths A, B, C, D. Each path will include two semi-final pairings \u2013 where the winners of a Pot 1 v Pot 4 fixture will play the winners of a Pot 2 v Pot 3 fixture. <\/p>\n

The playoff semi-finals are provisionally scheduled for Thursday, March 26th and the finals for Tuesday, March 31st.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Republic of Ireland will be away to one of Poland, Wales, the Czech Republic or Slovakia in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4700,61,60,1842,112,4018],"class_list":["post-147269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-heimir-hallgrimsson","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147269","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=147269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}