As Stephen Ward told us on Tuesday night, he and his Ireland team-mates will be viewed as underdogs no matter which opponents we're drawn against in the 2018 FIFA World Cup playoffs.
When we spoke to the Ireland left back, the actual make-up of the eight team playoff pool had not been confirmed, with a clash between Portugal and Switzerland in Lisbon among the matches that were going to have a bearing.
After Portugal defeated Switzerland last night to qualify for Russia 2018 directly, their Alpine opponents dropped into the playoff reckoning as one of the four seeded teams that Ireland could face in November for a place in the World Cup.
The four seeded sides in next Tuesday's draw will be four time champions Italy, Croatia, Denmark and the Swiss, all tough opponents in their own rights.
Ireland, meanwhile, alongside Greece, Sweden and Northern Ireland are the teams in the other side of the draw as the unseeded sides.
With a place in a first World Cup since 2002 at stake for Ireland, who would you rather see us get in the playoffs to give us the best chance of qualifying?
Let us know in our poll below:
We now know who we could face next month. But who would you prefer Ireland 🇮🇪 to get in the #WCQ2018 playoffs? #COYBIG #OTB
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) October 11, 2017
