Ireland playing Denmark away first could mean huge heartbreak

The glass is still half-full for the Republic of Ireland, but it may not have been the perfect playoff draw.

Unless you've been on Mars for the day, in a cave, with your eyes shut and your fingers in your ears, you've probably heard all about how the Republic of Ireland fared in the 2018 World Cup play-off draw. The instant reaction was one of joy as the Boys In Green were matched up with the lowest-ranked of the four seeded teams. They were drawn against Denmark, meaning the Italian, Croatian and, to a lesser extent, Swiss bullets were all avoided. The Danes finished second in their qualifying group to Poland, losing twice and drawing twice. They lost to Poland away, Montenegro at home and drew both fixtures with Romania. It's worth noting that they hammered Poland 4-0 at home. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/920292687437352962 Another cause for celebration was the leg order. The Republic of Ireland will travel to Copenhagen's Telia Parken on  Saturday 11 November, then welcome the Danes to the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday 14 November for the return leg. There was a lot of buzz on social media around having the away leg first because, after recent qualification campaigns, it is thought that this current Irish team are better when they are on the road first. They qualified for Euro 2012 and Euro 2016 after playing Estonia and Bosnia & Herzegovina respectively in the playoffs away first. As no one will soon forget, the Henry handball that led to Ireland being knocked out of the 2010 World Cup came in the second leg in Paris. So, the superstition is somewhat understandable. Although, it is nothing more than superstition. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/920285744907849728 If you open up the rulebook courtesy of Fifa.com, you'll realise that playing the home leg second could have disastrous effects all because of that dreaded away goal rule.

The team that scores the greater number of goals in both matches qualifies for Russia 2018. In the event of the teams being level on aggregate, the away goals rule will come into play. If the winner is still not decided at the end of normal time in the second leg, the match will go to extra time with two periods of 15 minutes and the away goals rule still applied. If the scores are still level at the end of extra time, the tie will go to penalties.

For example, if both legs end up as goalless draws after full-time, that means Denmark could score and concede once in extra-time in Dublin and still go through... here's hoping it doesn't come to that. For the time being, let's just be happy that the draw worked out so well.