Republic of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland ended their World Cup qualifying with back-to-back wins over Portugal and Hungary, allowing them to creep into second place behind the Portuguese.

Ranked 63rd in the world, the Republic of Ireland are placed in pot three and will travel to a pot two team in the play-off semi-final.

Potential play-off semi-final opponents:

• Poland
• Wales
• Czech Republic
• Slovakia

Should Republic of Ireland win their semi-final match, they will face the winner of one of the Pot 1 v Pot 4 semi-finals for a place at the World Cup.

Image source, Getty Images

Wales

Wales' victory against North Macedonia means they will definitely be in pot two among the second batch of seeds.

And that means they are certain to play a team from pot three at home in Cardiff for the one-off semi-final on 26 March 2026.

Potential play-off semi-final opponents:

• Albania
• Bosnia
• Kosovo
• Republic of Ireland

Should Wales win their semi-final match, they will face the winner of one of the Pot 1 v Pot 4 semi-finals for a place at the World Cup.

Ben Ramsdale
BBC Sport

It almost feels destined to be that, doesn't it?

Here's who all three could potentially face when the draw takes place...

World Cup

Here are the 42 nations already able to prepare for next year's World Cup, with six more to join.

Hosts

• Canada, Mexico, United States

UEFA

• England, France, Croatia, Portugal, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Scotland

AFC

• Japan, Uzbekistan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar

OFC

• New Zealand

CONMEBOL

• Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay

CAF

• Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Cape Verde, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Senegal

CONCACAF

• Curacao, Panama, Haiti

And for those of you (me) that need more of an explainer - you can check out this video from BBC Sport's Sam Harris below.

It also gives us an insight into the other play-off that will take place - the inter-confederation play-off.

Ask Me Anything

The 16 teams entering the draw will be split into four pots.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, this is the main gist of it: a pot one team will face a pot four team and a pot two team will face a pot three team.

• The 12 group runners-up have entered the top three pots in order of their Fifa ranking, with the four Nations League group winners placed into pot four.
• One team from each pot will be drawn into four separate paths: Path A, Path B, Path C and Path D.
• In each path, the pot one team will face the pot four team in a one-legged semi-final. The teams in pot two and pot three from each path will face each other in the other semi-final.
• Teams in pot one and pot two will both be at home in the semi-finals. The draw will determine who hosts the final in each path.

So for example, there will be two semi-finals in each path, and the winners of those play each other in a final. The winner of that will qualify for the World Cup.

The 12 teams who finished runners-up in their group are seeded into three pots by their world ranking - Wales and the Republic of Ireland are in these pots.

The fourth pot contains the four teams who were awarded a play-off through performance in the Uefa Nations League - Northern Ireland are in this pot.

Good morning!

We've got an important live to bring your way today, especially if you're of a Wales, Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland contingent.

It's World Cup play-off draw day.

Today, we find out who will face who in their respective semi-finals.

That draw will be brought to you live on this page around lunchtime but for now - a reminder of how exactly these play-offs are going to work...