{"id":506092,"date":"2026-06-18T13:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T13:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/506092\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T13:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T13:01:12","slug":"ireland-get-hugely-fortunate-draw-for-world-cup-play-offs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/506092\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland get hugely fortunate draw for World Cup play-offs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Republic of Ireland team has found out their fate in the play-offs for the 2027 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>After their huge win over <a href=\"https:\/\/evoke.ie\/2026\/06\/09\/news\/sport\/amber-barretts-dad-ireland\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Netherlands,<\/a> followed by a valiant display against France, Carla Ward\u2019s side were seeded for this play-off draw, which consists of a two-legged semi-final, followed by a two-legged final.<\/p>\n<p>Ireland being seeded means that they have a home advantage for the second leg in both ties, and after the draw today, they have a great opportunity to make their second straight World Cup.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/94487_2934024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1763590\"  \/>Katie McCabe celebrates after she scores her sides 2nd goal. Pic: Ryan Byrne\/INPHO<\/p>\n<p>In the play-off semi-finals, Ireland will face Kazakhstan, who, at 100th ranked in the World, are the lowest-ranked side Ireland could\u2019ve faced in the semi-final. <\/p>\n<p>Those matches will be played in the October International window, with the first leg likely taking place in Kazakhstan on October 7, followed by a home game on October 13.<\/p>\n<p>Then, in the play-off final, should The Girls in Green advance that far, they\u2019ll face the winner of Poland and Belgium for a place in the World Cup. It is a great draw on paper for Ireland, who beat them twice in April, winning 1-0 at home and 3-2 away.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/abbie-larkin-2.jpg\" alt=\"abbie larkin ireland\" class=\"wp-image-1704027\"  \/>Abbie Larkin celebrates. Photo by Mick O\u2019Shea\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p>Ireland has also beaten Belgium in recent memory over two legs. <\/p>\n<p>Just last November, Ireland smashed Belgium 4-2 at the Aviva Stadium in the first leg of the UEFA Nations League play-off, followed by <a href=\"https:\/\/extra.ie\/2025\/10\/29\/sport\/carla-ward-ireland-praise-belgium-playoff\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Abbie Larkin\u2019s late winner<\/a>, sealing the tie with a 2-1 defeat away in the second leg.<\/p>\n<p>Those fixtures will be played over the last week of November and the first week of December, with the second leg potentially seeing Ireland play at home for a chance at qualifying for the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>In other draws, European Champions England have been paired up with Greece in the semi-finals, followed by a potential tie against the winner of Slovenia and Ukraine. Wales face Albania, followed by a potential tie with either Romania or Norway.<\/p>\n<p>Scotland will have to beat Czechia first, followed by the winner of Lithuania and Sweden. Lastly, Northern Ireland face Portugal in their play-off semi-final, and if they progress past that, face the winner of Croatia and Iceland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Republic of Ireland team has found out their fate in the play-offs for the 2027 FIFA Women\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-506092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506092","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=506092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}