Ireland three points adrift of leaders Austria going in to penultimate group game

Nations League: Austria v Republic of Ireland, Raiffeisen Arena, Linz, 7.45pm Irish time

Hello everyone, seeing as there’s no other sport of note taking place this evening, you might as well join us for the latest stop on our journey following this Republic of Ireland side. At 7.45, they kick off against Austria in Linz in what is both teams’ penultimate game in their Nations League group.

How do things stand? Well, earlier today, Kosovo, who were reduced to 10 men for the last half-ish hour, drew 0-0 with Israel in Pristina, so this is how the group now looks:

The gist: If Ireland win tonight and beat Kosovo in their final game on Tuesday at the Aviva Stadium, they will top the group and secure promotion to League A. They would finish ahead of Austria if the sides were level on points because of their head-to-head record.

Regardless of the result in Linz, a win over Kosovo on Tuesday now guarantees Ireland at least second in the group. That would earn them a promotion/relegation play-off against a side finishing third or fourth in their League A group. And - very importantly - it would put them in with the second seeds for next month’s Euro 2028 qualifying draw, rather than being tossed in to the third pot.

Finishing third would just leave Ireland in League B, no ups or downs, while ending up bottom of the group would leave them needing to beat a League C runner-up in a play-off to avoid relegation. That’s unlikely-ish - for that to happen, they would need to lose their last two games and Israel would have to beat Austria in Hungary on Tuesday.

Is all that clear? No? Panic not, from here on we’ll focus on football rather than maths. Promise.