Slovakia v Ireland: All You Need To Know

WHEN

Slovakia v Ireland, NTC Senec, Tuesday 5pm

TV

Live coverage on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 4.30pm

RADIO

Live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra

ONLINE

Live tracker on RTÉ.ie and the News Now app from 4.30pm. Updates and match footage on RTÉ Soccer Twitter and RTÉ Sport Facebook

We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Party on hold as an opportunity arises

On Thursday evening, Vera Pauw warned her players off having a "party" and to instead partake in a mere "celebration" - she didn't elaborate on the distinction - on the basis that Ireland may have work to do against Slovakia, with the possibility of avoiding Round 1 of the play-offs still technically on the table, should results go their way over the weekend.

So, it turned out. Before Friday's fixtures, Ireland sat fourth in the table of best-performing second-placed teams, with the eventual top three set to skip Round 1 of the convoluted play-off format, jumping straight into the second round.

Belgium, Switzerland and Iceland sat in front of Ireland in the queue, while both Serbia and Austria - both with two games still to play - had the chance to leapfrog the Girls in Green with their games in hand.

The possibilities were touched upon by Karen Duggan on RTÉ's live match coverage on Thursday, who settled the Norway-Belgium game as the pivotal one.

The panel assess Ireland's playoff path after they guaranteed their place with a 1-0 win over Finland in Tallaght #rtesoccer pic.twitter.com/6sHEt274Z2

One by one, across Friday and Saturday, all the results fell Ireland's way. Tuva Hansen