Austria (Fifa ranking 24): The top-ranked nation in the group, Austria are on a roll after qualifying for their first World Cup since 1998. They won six and drew one of their eight games in their group, holding off Bosnia and Herzegovina to take their spot in the tournament this summer.
They last met Ireland when they were drawn together in the qualifying group for the 2018 World Cup. James McClean scored the only goal in the away meeting in Vienna, while Jon Walters scored a late equaliser against them in Dublin. They are captained by Real Madrid defender David Alaba.
Israel (Fifa ranking 77): Undoubtedly, the draw the Football Association of Ireland was dreading. It was only last November that they overwhelmingly passed a motion calling on Uefa to ban Israel from European club and international competitions.
But no sooner had the draw been made than the FAI confirmed that Ireland will fulfil their fixtures against Israel. There is, though, likely to be no end of tumult before those games.
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The Israelis played four of their “home” fixtures in Hungary last year, and in their last game they gave up home advantage to Moldova. It’s doubtful that they’d opt to play at “home” in Dublin, so Hungary it will probably be. The nations last met in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, drawing both meetings.
Kosovo (Fifa ranking 79): The group’s outsiders, but they’re on the up too, having won promotion to League B by beating Iceland home and away in their promotion playoff last March. And, like Ireland, they’re through to a World Cup qualifying semi-final against Slovakia next month, having finished runners-up to Switzerland in their group – and ahead of Slovenia and Sweden.
Ireland was one of the first countries to formally acknowledge Kosovo’s independence after it declared independence from Serbia in 2008, so it should be a somewhat friendlier matchup than the one with Israel.
