European Teams Find Out Their World Cup Play-Off Fate

When the last international break ended most of Europe's teams knew whether or not they'd be headed for Russia next summer. Eight remained in the play-offs and now they've found out who they'll face.

For England qualifying for the World Cup is definitely the easy part whereas some countries like to even make it difficult for themselves to make it to the World Cup.

Those teams who finished second in groups in the European zone of World Cup qualifying at least have a second chance to get to the tournament proper through a play-off, or at least eight of the nine teams do.

Included in those were Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland although neither of them were seeded and therefore were likely to face a tougher opponents. Today the eight teams learnt their fate:

The draw does not make good reading for Northern Ireland, who reached the last 16 of the Euros in France last year, as they face Switzerland who are the top ranked side, according to FIFA's rankings, in the draw.

The Swiss finished level on points with Portugal at the top of their group and were unlucky not to qualify as top, only missing out on goal difference after losing their only match to Portugal in the last round of games.

_{Northern Ireland did fantastically at the Euros. Image: PA}

Republic of Ireland go to Denmark in the first leg with the Danes having finished below in Poland and the Dane's will be desperate to qualify having missed out on the last World Cup and last Euros.

Elsewhere the unconvincing Italy, who drew with Macedonia and only beat Albania 1-0 in their last two qualifiers, play the tricky Sweden with the Swede's only finishing below France in qualifying.

_{McLean's goal took Ireland into the play-offs and dumped Wales out. Image: PA}

Finally Greece, who finished nine points behind Belgium, and Croatia, the team who have been labeled dark horses in every competition since finishing third at the 1998 World Cup, complete the lineup.

Slovakia, who beat Scotland to second place in their group, were the one team to finish second and miss out on the play-offs.

Topics: World Cup

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

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