It’s yet another play-off for Ireland to qualify for the 2027 Women’s World Cup after they lost 1-0 to France in Grenoble on Tuesday.

Carla Ward’s side put up a valiant performance against the much stronger French side and had chances to equalise after the French went down to 10 players.

Still, alas, it wasn’t enough to secure automatic qualification for next year’s World Cup in Brazil.

The Girls in Green will have to go through the much-dreaded play-offs, much like the men’s team, but rather a semi-final/final one-legged tie, these play-offs work a bit differently.

These play-offs are held over two rounds of two-legged ties, and Ireland, having finished third in their group in UEFA Qualifying’s top-tier League A, go into the play-offs in Path 1 as a seeded side.

This means they miss the likes of England, Italy and Sweden for the first round of the play-offs.

In Path 1, second and third-placed League A sides will face the table winners and the two best runners-up from the lower-ranked League C of UEFA qualifying.

This means the team Ireland could face in Round 1 of the play-offs is one of Hungary, Greece, Romania, Belarus, Kosovo, Lithuania, Croatia, or Kazakhstan.

As the higher-ranked side, Ireland will get the advantage of playing the second leg of the Round 1 tie at home.

For Round 2 of the play-offs, the winners of those Path 1 ties will then be drawn against the winners of the Path 2 ties, which consist of the bottom teams in League A and the table toppers in League B, facing the second and third placed teams from groups in League B.

If Ireland make it to Round 2, they two will have home advantage in the second leg of the tie, having come through Path 1, which could see Katie McCabe and co play in front of a lively Irish crowd with World Cup qualification on the line.

These games will take place later this year, from October 7-13 (Round 1) and from November 26-December 5 (Round 2). The draw for Round 1 takes place in just over a week on Thursday, June 18.