Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, you beautiful man.
Luc Nilis and Romelu Lukaku are two Belgians that have stuck it to Ireland in recent years but, as of tonight, all is forgiven.
Irish fans have suddenly found themselves supporting a whole heap of other countries, temporarily of course, ahead of the final World Cup Qualifier game against Wales, on Monday.
In order to qualify for the playoffs as one of the best second place sides, Ireland need to beat Wales and then rely on another result or two going our way.
Three decent results have already worked in Ireland’s favour. Scotland beat Slovakia on Thursday night and Croatia drew with Finland.
Tonight, Belgium came back from 2-1 down to defeat Bosnia 4-3. That man Carrasco popped up, and held his nerve, to slot the winner with seven minutes to go.
https://twitter.com/JogaBonitoUSA/status/916721257500086272
Marouane Fellaini limped off after 29 minutes in that match so must be considered a doubt for Manchester United’s next Premier League game, against Liverpool.
That leaves Bosnia on 14 points overall and still in second but – taking off their 6 points from their wins over bottom side Gibraltar – they are on eight points in the ‘Second place table’.
Second-place table
If Ireland beat Wales, they’ll have 13 points in this ranking system for the playoffs.
Bosnia are away to Estonia in their final game and winning that would only see them tot up 11 points [17 overall]. In short, Belgium have done exactly what we wanted them to do.
That leaves second place up for grabs in Bosnia and Belgium’s Group H. Greece beat Cyprus 2-1 this evening and are now in second position – 16 points overall but 13 points going forward to the second place table.
They play Gibraltar in their final game so although they need to win to clinch second in their group, the points don’t count when trying to ascertain the best of the second place sides. 13 points is now the very best a second place team in Group H can achieve.
Which brings us back to Ireland. Beat Wales and we end up on 13 points.
Greece have a big advantage here, though. As it stands, Greece are on +4 goal difference while Ireland are just at +1. If it comes down to us and Greece, Ireland would have to beat Wales by four clear goals to pip them to it.
Over the next 48 hours, these two results will help a lot – Scotland to lose or draw against Slovenia and Ukraine and Croatia to draw on Monday night.
Many of the results are going our way but all this is for nought if we don’t win in Cardiff on Monday night.
