Why Ireland would be better to lose to Netherlands in bid to qualify for Euro 2024 | OneFootball

Highlights

Ireland are in an incredibly strange situation where it will be beneficial to lose to the Netherlands to have a chance of qualifying for Euro 2024. European nations are currently reaching the climax of their European Championship qualifiers ahead of next summer's tournament in Germany.

It's becoming increasingly clear which nations will be qualifying automatically through their group, which nations may have to enter a playoff and which nations will be watching the tournament on TV sitting at home having failed to qualify.

One of those teams that look set to fall into the latter category are Ireland. They're in Group B of the European Championship qualifiers and have no chance of qualifying automatically following their recent loss to Greece. They find themselves in a group with France, Greece and the Netherlands and have now lost five of their six matches. Their only victory came against Gibraltar and they can only finish third in the best case scenario. But their chances of qualifying for Euro 2024 aren't quite over yet.

Why Ireland would be better to lose against Netherlands

Due to the introduction of the Nations League, sides have two avenues of qualification. The playoffs include the best-performing sides from the Nations League that failed to qualify automatically for Euro 2024 the traditional way. For Ireland to be in the playoffs, there cannot be more than seven teams above them in the Nations League rankings that fail to qualify automatically. The Netherlands are one of those teams so it would be beneficial if they qualify automatically ahead of Greece, who aren't one of those sides.

This issue was spotted by DBAbsur on X, who wrote: "It has come true. Ireland, in order to increase its chances of promotion (only possible if <8 teams above it in the Nations League do NOT advance directly) MUST lose to the Netherlands, which will free up one place for Ireland. I have warned about this possibility for a long time."

They added: "What I warned about has happened In Group B, Ireland to have any chance of playing in the play-offs, must ... lose to Netherlands (this will create additional playoffs place possible taken by Ireland), while an Ireland win against Netherlands almost certainly takes away Ireland's chance to advance. This is unacceptable."

How Group B currently looks

How the Nations League rankings look

The situation is also being discussed on Reddit. UEFA surely didn't foresee these complications when they introduced the Nations League as a way of qualifying for the European Championships.

On Monday, Ireland face Gibraltar in a fixture they will be expected to win fairly comfortably. But it's on November 18 where the crunch match against Netherlands takes place in their final qualifier. Ireland will travel to the Netherlands knowing a defeat would be better for their chances of qualifying for Euro 2024. It's still unlikely that Ireland will be playing the tournament in Germany come next summer but stranger things have happened in football. And it will be very interesting to see how they approach their game against the Dutch.