Which teams can Ireland draw in World Cup play-offs?

Ireland are through to the World Cup play-offs are their extraordinary win over Hungary this week.

The Irish had stunned group leaders Portugal in Dublin last week – when Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off – to set up the chance of making the play-offs, and Troy Parrott’s dramatic hat-trick secured their place in March’s 16-nation showdown.

Here is everything you need to know about Republic of Ireland’s play-offs campagin.

Ireland are one of 16 teams in the play-offs, made up of the 12 group runners-up in qualifying and four teams added due to their performance in the most recent Nations League.

The draw is seeded, with four pots of four nations. The first three pots are the 12 runners-up from qualifying ranked by world ranking; the fourth pot contains the four Nations League sides.

Teams from pot 1 will play teams for pot 4 in the semi-finals, and teams from pot 2 will play teams from pot 3. Crucially, those nations in pots 1 and 2 will be at home for the one-off match, so Ireland will be the away team.

Ireland are in pot 3, which means they will be drawn against either Poland, Wales, Czechia or Slovakia. The eight semi-finals will be paired to create four finals, from which four winners will qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

The home team in the finals will be decided by random during the draw.

The Uefa play-off draw will take place on Thursday 20 November at 12pm GMT.

The matches will be held in March 2026, with the semi-finals on 26 March and the finals on 31 March.