Who’s your preference?
The draw for the Euro 2016 play-offs takes place on Sunday morning, with the matches set to be played on November 12/13/14 and 15/16/17.
Ireland will be joined in the unseeded pot by Slovenia, Denmark and Norway.
Martin O’Neill’s men will therefore face either Hungary, Sweden, Bosnia & Herzegovina or Ukraine in the two-legged decider.
We take a look at these potential opponents.
Hungary
They certainly had a strong appetite (eh?) to qualify from the group but were pipped by Romania and table-topping Northern Ireland.
Ireland last played them three years ago in a scoreless friendly and, in all honesty, these lads are probably our best chance of going to France next summer.
They haven’t qualified for the European Championships since 1972, although they would have done this time had Turkey not scored that last minute winner against Iceland to go through as the best third-placed country.
Player to watch: Balazs Dzsudzsak (Bursaspor)
Ukraine
Surprisingly, Ireland and Ukraine have never played each other, so who knows what could happen if we’re drawn together.
Ukraine missed out on a good opportunity in Group C. They were in with Spain but the rest of their matches were very winnable.
In fairness, despite losing to Spain twice, the Euro 2012 co-hosts got results in every other fixture with the exception of a 1-0 defeat to Slovakia – the nation that qualified at their expense.
Player to watch: Yevhen Konoplyanka (Sevilla)
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Group B hopefuls Bosnia & Herzegovina snuck into third place ahead of Israel and Cyprus in the final round of games.
The Eastern Europeans were placed in a tough group alongside Belgium and Wales and actually started the campaign with a home loss to Cyprus, before redeeming themselves against the bigger boys.
We beat them in a 2012 friendly, but they have some very handy players in the form of Asmir Begovic, Miralem Pjanic and former Man City striker Edin Dzeko, so they’ll be tough.
Player to watch: Edin Dzeko (Roma)
Sweden
Ireland were paired with the Swedes in the last World Cup qualifying group and we only got one point off them over the two games.
They’ll be disappointed not to have qualified from their group this time around, where they lost out to Russia and a surprisingly outstanding Austria side (they got 28 points from a possible 30).
Sweden really haven’t been great in recent years, and although they arguably possess the best player of the four countries, we’d have a good chance against them.
Player to watch: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG)
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