There was a major upset in Group 8 (and a great result for Ireland!) as Cyprus hammered Bulgaria 4-1.

The shock result meant that Ireland went into the Italian game knowing that a point would be enough for them to qualify for the playoffs.

A win against Italy would technically have meant they could still chase automatic qualification.

But it would have made your head hurt to work it out.

Ireland are now second in Group 8 and needed only one point from the games against Italy and Montenegro to be guaranteed a place in the playoffs.

However, this is where we all usually hide behind the sofa because if there's one thing you can count on with Ireland, it's losing two games at home when all we needed was a draw.

Thankfully, Ireland made the draw Saturday although we were so close to a three-point win.

A win against Italy and a win against Montenegro on Wednesday would have put us in for automatic qualification.

However, we would also have been depending on Italy losing against Cyprus at home.

Mind you, if they do lose that game, it will make today's oh-so-close game that much harder to swallow.