Ireland have been drawn against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the play-offs for Euro 2016, while Sweden will face Denmark, their Scandinavian neighbours.
Martin O’Neill’s side narrowly missed out on automatic qualification for the finals when they lost to Poland in their final match and finished third in group D. They will now need to beat the nation that finished behind Belgium and Wales to book their place in France next summer.
“If there is any slight advantage to be had for us it’s that the second game is in Dublin,” O’Neill said. “We need to perform out in Bosnia to make sure that the second game in Dublin means something. We have a chance.
“We have some problems to negotiate with suspensions and who knows what will happen in the next few weeks, injury is always a possibility, but we will go for it and give it everything we’ve got. We had terrific results against Germany, the draw out in Germany and a home win, and because that’s so recent we can draw real confidence from it.”
Three of the eight teams in the play-offs are from Scandinavia and at least one nation from the region is guaranteed to compete at the finals after Sweden and Denmark were drawn together.
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be the centre of attention as he tries to lead Sweden to their first major finals since the 2012 European Championship. Denmark, who were champions in 2002, went out at the group stages in Euro 2012 and did not qualify for the World Cup in 2014.
In the other two matches in the play-off draw, Ukraine were drawn to play Slovenia, while Norway will face Hungary.
Both legs of the matches will be played between November 12-17.
Draw for Euro 2016 play-offs
Ukraine v Slovenia
Sweden v Denmark
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Ireland
Norway v Hungary