{"id":14540,"date":"2025-11-20T15:11:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/wales-ireland-and-northern-ireland-decide-their-opponents-resulting-in-a-complete-draw-in-the-world-cup-play-offs-soccer-sports\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T15:11:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:11:41","slug":"wales-ireland-and-northern-ireland-decide-their-opponents-resulting-in-a-complete-draw-in-the-world-cup-play-offs-soccer-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/wales-ireland-and-northern-ireland-decide-their-opponents-resulting-in-a-complete-draw-in-the-world-cup-play-offs-soccer-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland decide their opponents, resulting in a complete draw in the World Cup play-offs | Soccer | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-mce-linkchecker-status=\"valid\">The draw for the World Cup play-offs took place on Thursday afternoon, with Wales, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland finding their opponents. All three countries failed to earn automatic qualification to next summer&#8217;s tournament, so they will have to go through an additional stage. England have already qualified for the World Cup, with Scotland securing their spot with a dramatic win over Denmark earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p data-mce-linkchecker-status=\"valid\">The playoffs will feature 16 teams, consisting of the 12 second-place teams in the qualifying group and an additional four teams that qualified in the Nations League. Eight semi-final matches will be held in March, followed by four final matches (one match for each route) to determine next year&#8217;s World Cup participants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Wales will face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the semi-finals, with the single-leg match scheduled to take place in Cardiff. They were drawn into Path A, meaning they could be on course to take on Italy in the final.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Republic of Ireland will face the Czech Republic and could face Denmark in the Pass D final if both teams can get through the first game.<\/p>\n<p>Northern Ireland had the toughest draw of the three teams, with Italy hosting them in the semi-finals. They will suffer a heavy defeat against the Azzurri, but if they advance they could face Wales in the Path A final.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that both sides have been drawn into the same path means only one of Wales or Northern Ireland will qualify for next summer&#8217;s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The expanded tournament will feature 48 teams, including a handful of countries that have never competed in a World Cup before, such as Curacao, Haiti and Cape Verde.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Confirmed lottery<\/h3>\n<p>path A<\/p>\n<p>Italy vs Northern Ireland<\/p>\n<p>Wales vs Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/p>\n<p>path B<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine vs Sweden<\/p>\n<p>poland vs albania<\/p>\n<p>path C<\/p>\n<p>T\u00fcrkiye vs Romania<\/p>\n<p>Slovakia vs Kosovo<\/p>\n<p>path D<\/p>\n<p>Denmark vs North Macedonia<\/p>\n<p>Czech Republic vs Republic of Ireland<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/football\/2136471\/World-Cup-playoff-draw-Wales-Ireland-Northern-Ireland\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The draw for the World Cup play-offs took place on Thursday afternoon, with Wales, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland finding their opponents. All three countries failed to earn automatic qualification to next summer&#8217;s tournament, so they will have to go through an additional stage. England have already qualified for the World Cup, with Scotland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-matches"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland decide their opponents, resulting in a complete draw in the World Cup play-offs | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/20\/wales-ireland-and-northern-ireland-decide-their-opponents-resulting-in-a-complete-draw-in-the-world-cup-play-offs-soccer-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland decide their opponents, resulting in a complete draw in the World Cup play-offs | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The draw for the World Cup play-offs took place on Thursday afternoon, with Wales, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland finding their opponents. 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