It was a case of getting the job done in Slovakia last night for the Republic of Ireland Women’s National Team, and that is what they did with Denise O’Sullivan’s winner being enough to separate the teams.
That means we get to skip through the first round of the UEFA Play-offs for the World Cup, the draw for which will be made on Friday.
One disappointing note of the commentary about the qualification process over the past week has been the easy laughs to be gained by saying how complicated it all was. If it matters then you take the time to find out what the different scenarios might mean, and if you have a role in bringing news or explanation to a wider audience, that in many ways is your job, just as it was for O’Sullivan to score the winner.
Uefa has 11 places at next season’s FIFA Women’s World Cup and the possibility of an additional twelfth one.
There were nine groups so the nine winners book their places straight away and then a process is needed to get the extra two.
The fairest way is to give a chance to each of the nine runners-up which is what happened. Because it is an odd number you will need two rounds so again fairness dictates that the three teams with the best record in the group stage have an advantage and skip straight to a second round.
The other six play each other in a single leg, all-or-nothing decider. Then the three to emerge from there and the other three better finishing runners-up meet in another round of single-leg, all-or-nothing ties.
That leaves three, the top two of which on the basis of their Group performances go straight to the finals, and the third into one final playoff tournament against ten teams from around the world from which three will emerge.
The draw for the first round of the UEFA playoffs takes place on Friday, as well as the provisional second round.
Three from Austria, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Portugal, Scotland and Wales will progress to the second round to join Iceland, Switzerland and the Girls in Green.
Five of the teams we might face are ranked above us in the latest world rankings so it will not be easy but at least there is a chance, and getting to a first World Cup Finals was never supposed to be a walk in the park.
Sometimes it takes a little time, like five minutes or so, to figure out the pathways. But really, if it matters then surely those with a duty to explain should put that small amount of time in.
