Ireland World Cup play-off picture becomes clearer for the Girls in Green

The Republic of Ireland will have an easier play-off route to get to the 2023 World Cup should they beat Slovakia away on Tuesday evening thanks to England’s win over Austria on Saturday afternoon.

The 1-0 Ireland victory over Finland last Thursday evening in Tallaght secured a position in the play-offs for Ireland. 

However, results over the weekend with England's victory, Portugal beating Serbia and a win for Norway over Belgium means Vera Pauw’s team have the opportunity of getting a bye-through the play-off semi-final once they can defeat Slovakia. 

The draw for the play-offs takes place on Friday at 12:30 Irish time, with the play-off semi-final set for October 6 and the final play-off round five days later. 

There is an open draw to decide which team is at home in the single game play-offs. All play-offs level after 90 minutes will go to extra time, and if necessary a penalty shoot-out.

How do the UEFA play-offs work?

There are nine runners up from the UEFA qualifying groups that will qualify for the UEFA play-offs which have two rounds - semi-finals (round 1) and finals (round 2).

The three best three runners-up from the nine UEFA groups progress directly to the play-off final round. Those teams will include Ireland if they win in Slovakia.

The remaining six runners-up will be paired off in play-off semi-finals (with no seeding) to provide the three teams to progress into play-off finals. If Ireland fail to win in Slovakia, they will be playing in this semi-final round on October 6.

The three winners from the semi-final round and the three teams who progress directly to play-off final round will then compete in three single-leg play-off finals. The ties will be determined by an open draw involving all six sides with no seeding. The first team drawn out for each tie will have home advantage.

Those matches are set for October 11 and will produce three play-off winners.

The two play-off winners with the highest ranking based on results in the qualifying group stage against the sides ranked first, third, fourth and fifth in their group and the play-off final (the play-off semi final does not form part of the ranking) will qualify automatically for the World Cup due to take place next year in Australia and New Zealand.

The remaining play-off winner will compete as UEFA’s single representative in an inter-confederation FIFA play-off mini-tournament in February 2023 in New Zealand.

How does the FIFA play-off work?

The team from UEFA will compete with nine others for the final three qualifying spots for the tournament at a mini-tournament held at the Waikato Stadium in Hamilton/Kirikiriroa and the North Harbour Stadium in Auckland/Timaki Makaurau.

The nine teams who will make up the tournament with the European side are listed here along with their world ranking: Thailand (41), Chinese Taipei (38), Cameroon (59), Senegal (84), Haiti (56), Paraguay (51), Panama (57), Chile (39) and Papua New Guinea (49) 

Four teams will be seeded in the tournament based on the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking prior to the play-off draw, with a maximum of one seeded team per confederation.

The European team is likely to be seeded in the tournament based on the current world rankings. The Republic of Ireland are currently 26 in the FIFA rankings.

In Group 1, comprising three teams, seed 1 will play for a place in the FIFA Women’s World Cup against the winners of the knockout game involving the two unseeded teams in the group.

In Group 2, comprising three teams, seed 2 will play for a place in the FIFA Women’s World Cup against the winners of the knockout game involving the two unseeded teams in the group.

In Group 3, comprising four teams, seeds 3 and seed 4 will play against the two unseeded teams in the group, with the two winners then playing for a place in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The play-off tournament will be used as a test event in Australia and New Zealand for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and both hosts will be invited to participate in friendly matches against the teams in Group 1 and Group 2, thereby ensuring that all teams play two matches during the play-off tournament.

Denise O’Sullivan’s Tallaght tears of despair turn to tears of joy with Ireland play-off bound

"It was very emotional. There were definitely a few tears.”https://t.co/Qzat0VIiWqpic.twitter.com/KSz7Rfno6u

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) September 3, 2022