Giovanni Trapattoni’s side, who played out a snore-draw against Montenegro at Croke Park, will find out their opponents on Monday when the draw takes place at Fifa HQ in Zurich.
Ahead of Wednesday’s matches, two automatic places were still up for grabs and there were several playoff berths yet to be decided.
Early on, England’s weekend conquerors Ukraine hit minnows Andorra for six to confirm their place in the draw, meaning Croatia’s 2-1 win in Kazakhstan meant little.
In Group One, Portugal, without the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, cruised to a 4-0 victory over Malta to earn their spot at the expense of Sweden, who brought to a close the nine-year tenure of Head Coach Lars Lagerback with a win over Albania.
Switzerland qualified for back-to-back World Cups for the first time in since 1966 despite failing to score for the first time in the campaign. Ottmar Hitzfeld’s side forced a nervy goalless draw with Israel to pip Greece to top spot in Group Two.
The night, though, belonged to Slovakia after their 1-0 win in Poland earned them a place at football’s top table for the first time since becoming an independent country. Elsewhere in Group Three Slovenia beat San Marino 3-0 to fend off a late charge from the Czech Republic who drew with Northern Ireland.
Bosnia will also go into Monday’s draw despite being thumped 5-2 by Spain in a victory that maintained the pre-tournament favourite’s 100 per cent record.
France completed their campaign with a stylish win over Austria, while Russia limped across the line with a 1-1 draw in Azerbaijan. Both, though, were already assured of their place in the playoffs.
A seeding system is in place meaning the four highest ranked teams in the playoffs will avoid each other. Ireland, currently 38th in the Fifa list, will be in the unseeded pot with Bosnia (the only one of the eight playoff teams below the Republic in the list), Slovenia and Ukraine. The matches will take place on Saturday November 14th and Wednesday November 18th.
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