There are still some World Cup Qualifiers to be played in order to determine who will join the other teams in the Group Stage, and in the European bracket Denmark will be playing host to Ireland on Saturday, November 11th. Denmark did not make the best of starts in the World Cup Qualifiers, but they were really competitive in their last matches and eventually grabbed a well deserved 2nd spot. Ireland grabbed a massive win against Wales, and stole the 2nd spot from their Brittish rivals.
Ireland were quite lucky in the World Cup Qualifiers draw, as they were put into a group that lacked a big name. However, 4 pretty equal teams fought for the two top spots, and Serbia eventually finished at the top spot with 21 points, while Ireland defeated Wales in the last match and finished 2nd with 19. Wales had 17 and Austria had 15 points. They went undefeated in their first 7 matches, with their only loss coming against Serbia by 0-1 at home. However, it was their performance in their final match against a Bale-less Wales side, as they managed to prevail in this Brittish battle by 0-1 on the road. Winning there was the only way for them to capture the 2nd spot, and they did exactly that.
On the other hand, Denmark suffered a couple of tough losses in their first 3 matches in the Qualifiers, that really hurt their qualification chances. However, they made an amazing run after that, as they didn’t lose a single match (5-0-2), and finished at the 2nd spot with 20 points. They were really strong at home (3-1-1), where they only lost to Montenegro quite unexpectedly, and were held to a 1-1 draw against Romania. Tottenham’s playmaker Christian Eriksen is the star of that team, as he has already scored 8 goals in the Qualifiers, to go with 3 assists.