Stephen Kenny's Republic of Ireland will be up against Portugal and Serbia in their campaign to reach the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
The draw consisted of 55 top European nations, split into six pots based on their official world ranking according to FIFA.
These pots were used to select the ten groups for the European World Cup qualifiers; five groups of six teams, and five groups of five.
Kenny's side did themselves no favours in the lead up to the qualifiers draw, as they failed to earn a victory, and were on the receiving end of two goalless defeats.
This resulted in them dropping out of the top 20 European teams, therefore dropping out of the second pot, into the third, alongside Russia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Norway, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, Greece and Finland.
⌛️ The @UEFA Zone #WorldCup preliminary draw begins in just 4 hours
🌍 ICYMI, the 55 European hopefuls have been allocated into these 6 pots based on the #FIFARanking
ℹ️👉 https://t.co/YHKkjUHOsI pic.twitter.com/6LZgh5XCN9— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 7, 2020
The World Cup will be much more difficult to qualify for than the Euros, even without the difficult group, as there are almost half the spaces available to European countries in the World cup than there are spots in the Euros.
Of the 32 teams set to qualify for Qatar, 13 will be European, whereas Euro 2020 had 24 spots to fill.
In order to head to 2022, Ireland will have to either automatically qualify by finishing at the top of their group, or win one of the three qualifier play-off finals.
The play-offs will consist of the 10 runners-up and the two best-ranked Nations League group winners who don’t finish in the top two of their qualification group.
They will all face off in three separate paths to their respective finals, for the remaining spots in Qatar.
With Ireland failing to win their Nations League group, they will need to finish in the top two in their qualifiers group in order to be in with a shot of making the World Cup.
📰 CONFIRMED: Here are the groups for @UEFA's #WCQ on the road to #WorldCup Qatar 2022!
🤔 Which games stand out to YOU? pic.twitter.com/sLsXolLR3t— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 7, 2020
Ireland's World Cup qualifiers Group
Ireland were drawn in group A alongside Portugal, Serbia, Luxembourg, and Azerbaijan.
The Groups:
Group A: Portugal, Serbia, Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg,Azerbaijan
Group B: Spain, Sweden, Greece, Georgia, Kosovo
Group C: Italy, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Lithuania
Group D: France, Ukraine, Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakstan
Group E: Belgium, Wales, Czech Republic, Belarus, Estonia
Group F: Denmark, Austria, Scotland, Israel, Faroe Island, Moldova
Group G: Netherlands, Turkey, Norway, Montenegro, Latvia, Gibraltar
Group H: Croatia, Slovakia, Russia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta
Group I: England, Poland, Hungary, Albania, Andorra, San Marino
Group J: Germany, Romania, Iceland, North Macedonia, Armenia, Liechtenstein
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