Euro 2020: Permutations for Boys in Green

SO where do Ireland stand now after Denmark’s late winner in Copenhagen and Ireland’s scoreless draw in Tbilisi? And what are our prospects if we don’t make it through automatically from Group D?

OK, the easy one, but the least likely one, is that Ireland beat Switzerland tomorrow and qualify for Euro 2020. Ireland would have 15 points, a total the Swiss could not match – job done.

If Ireland draw in Geneva, we’d go to 13 points with the Swiss on nine. Denmark don’t play tomorrow, but they do have Gibraltar at home in November so we can give them those three points and put them on 15. So Ireland would have to beat Denmark in Dublin next month to go through.

Lose to Switzerland and Ireland would still go through by beating the Danes as we would be ahead of them on the head-to-head rule.

Two draws won’t get it done for Ireland as Switzerland have very winnable games in November against Georgia (h) and Gibraltar (a). You will need more than 14 points to get out of this group.

If Ireland don’t qualify automatically, we then have the long wait to see how many countries who fared better than Ireland in the Nations League last year go straight through.

Right now, the results are going our way and Ireland would get a playoff, if it is needed. But these play-offs are one-leg games and the odds are that Ireland would be the away team in the fixture as we did so poorly against Denmark and Wales last year. That play-off would be one match, 90 minutes with extra-time and penalties to find a winner on the night.

Win that and Ireland would have another one-leg play-off a few days later with home advantage being settled this time by a draw.