What Needs To Happen For Ireland To Reach The World Cup Tonight

Ireland head into Glasgow to face Scotland this evening facing the game of their lives. A win at Hampden Park could set Ireland on their way to the World Cup, however a victory does not guarantee their place at the tournament. Defeat, however, would mean the end of the round.

Here’s an explainer on what has to happen for the Girls In Green to qualify for football’s biggest tournament.

What Needs To Happen For Ireland To Qualify

Firstly, and most importantly, Ireland have to win against Scotland in Glasgow. This will be a difficult task considering their opponents are three places higher in world rankings, and considering Ireland’s depleted squad.

Other playoffs are taking place tonight as well – Wales play Switzerland and Portugal play Iceland. Ireland find themselves third in the table of playoffs team. Only the top two ranked teams of the play off finals will get a ticket to Australia and New Zealand and Ireland are currently third in the group. The third place side will head to the ten team inter confederations in New Zealand in February.

The top two will be decided by combining the play-off results with the group stage results. Since some groups have 6 teams rather than the usual 5, matches against the 6th placed team will not count.

The manner of victory will also matter. Win after extra time will count as 3 points. However, winning via penalties will only count as one point so don’t expect teams to sit back in extra time.

Here’s how the table looks.

Not only do…