The Republic of Ireland is set to be one of the top seeds when UEFA make the draw for the qualifying stages of the next European championships in Porto in January.
The rankings for the draw will be based a coefficient calculated by UEFA largely based on the performances of all the various entrants over the past two major tournaments and having finished in the top two of their qualifying groups on each occasion, Mick McCarthy's men currently occupy one of the coveted top positions.
When the draws were made for the qualifying stages of both Euro 2000 and the current World Cup campaign Ireland was placed among the third seeds. But having lost only twice during the attempt to make it to last year's European Championships and come through the current campaign without a loss so far, McCarthy's side have soared up the ranking and will now almost certainly be one of the first teams to be drawn from the hat.
The structure of the qualifying campaign for Portugal has yet to be finalised and UEFA's Executive will probably finalise the rules when it meets in Nyon on December 12th and 13th.
But it is possible that Ireland's position might be further strengthened by a move to have 10 qualifying groups with the winners progressing along with the five winners of play-off games between the 10 runners up.
Cyprus, meanwhile, will be without several key players when they arrive in Dublin this afternoon for Saturday's World Cup qualifying game. From the regular squad for the last two matches against Estonia and Portugal, Marios Charalambous, Marios Agathocleous and Nikolas Georgiou will be missing through suspension while Michalis Constandinou, Yiotis Engomitis, Andreas Petrides, Ioakim Ioakim, Philippos Philippou and Milenko Spoljaric are all injured.
Squad: Panayiotou, Avgousti, Luca, Nicolaou, Foukaris, Daskalakis, Konnafis, Theodotou, Michael, Kotsonis, Satsias, Melanarkitis, Christodoulou, Themistocleous, Okkas, Yiasoumi, Kontolefteros, Jurev.
Sergio Conceicao has pulled out of Portugal's World Cup qualifying match against Estonia after failing to recover from a thigh injury.
The Inter Milan winger did not train with the rest of the Portugal squad yesterday, limiting himself to running on a track inside the National Stadium in Lisbon.
"It is impossible to recover the player for Saturday's match. The evolution did not go as we forecast, so we decided to free him," team doctor Henrique Jones told reporters. It is the second major blow for Portugal this week after Sporting winger Ricardo Sa Pinto withdrew on Tuesday because of a knee injury. Coach Antonio Oliveira said he'd no plans to call up replacements for the two injured players.
Victory in the final qualifier would almost certainly make Portugal winners of European Group Two, clinching their place ahead of the Republic of Ireland in next year's finals. Both teams have 21 points, but Ireland's goal difference is inferior (+14 to +21).
The FAI have received assurances at a meeting with government officials that the Stadium Ireland project would proceed on schedule, despite recent reports that the worsening budgetary situation might threaten the project.
