The Republic of Eire are hoping to but keep away from a demoralising relegation to the third tier of the Nations League as they put together to find their play-off opponents this week.
It was a largely torrid marketing campaign for The Boys in Inexperienced, who misplaced all however two of their matches in Group B2 and shipped 12 objectives within the course of.
Eire had been overwhelmed house and away by each promoted England and runners-up Greece, thumped 5-0 at Wembley of their closing sport final weekend following a woeful second-half collapse that left Icelandic supervisor Heimir Hallgrimsson “misplaced for phrases”.
Nevertheless, an Evan Ferguson winner towards Finland three days earlier than in Dublin to go together with their dramatic late 2-1 victory in Helsinki in October means they keep away from direct demotion into League C and can as a substitute contest a tense relegation/promotion play-off.
The League B/C play-offs will see the 4 third-placed finishers from the teams in League B go up towards the 4 runners-up from the teams in League C in two-legged play-off ties, the winners of which can be in League B and the losers in League C.
The present League B nations are all seeded for Friday’s draw – which takes place from 11am GMT at Uefa headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland – and every paired with an unseeded promotion hopeful from League C, with the seeded groups all at house within the second legs.
Who can Republic of Eire face within the Nations League play-offs?
The Republic of Eire are joined within the play-offs by Slovenia, Georgia and Iceland from League B.
They might find yourself assembly Slovakia, who pushed Sweden for computerized promotion from Group C1 however crucially misplaced 2-1 in Solna final month to finish up ending as runners-up.
One other potential opponent is Kosovo, whose place as runners-up in Group C2 has now been confirmed after their deserted match towards Romania in Bucharest final week was subsequently awarded as a 3-0 win for the latter.
Eire may additionally face Bulgaria, who completed second behind Northern Eire in Group C3 regardless of Michael O’Neill’s facet throwing away a two-goal lead in Luxembourg of their closing sport.
Lastly it might be Armenia, who completed a distant second to dominant North Macedonia in Group C4 with solely two wins to their identify from six matches however crucially forward of each the Faroe Islands and Latvia.