Northern Ireland 1-2 Estonia
Estonia have cemented their first ever play off spot for a major tournament following their 2-1 win over Northern Ireland in Belfast last Friday, coupled with Slovenia's 1-0 win over nearest rivals Serbia in Maribor last night.
Konstantin Vassiljev came off the bench to score two late goals giving Estonia a win in their final group game over Northern Ireland. Steven Davis had given the Northern Irish the lead from close range midway through the first half. Vassiljev replaced Tarmo Kink on 65 minutes and then won and converted a penalty (initial contact looked to be outside the box, but we'll let that go) to level the scores. His 84th minutes winner was a belter from 25 yards into the top corner as the Northern Irish defence had stopped, appealing for offside. The linesman had flagged believing a forward pass had come from an Estonian boot, but the referee was well placed to see that it was in fact a ricochet off a Northern Irish player and correctly ignored the flag.
Estonia were still reliant on Serbia slipping up against Slovenia last night. Serbia needed to win as a draw would have left them level on points with Estonia but with an inferior head to head record. Dare Vrsic's goal for Slovenia on the stroke of half time gave Serbia an uphill task and they could not find an equaliser, let alone a winner, leading to celebrations across Estonia. They won't even be too fussed about their 0-2 friendly defeat against Ukraine in Tallinn last night.
The play offs will be seeded (based on performance in recent tournaments and qualification campaigns), meaning that Estonia can expect a tough tie. The final seedings are to be finalised today as they calculate the final scorings, but the seeded teams will almost certainly be Croatia, Portugal and Czech Republic, along with one from Republic of Ireland, Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The draw for the play offs is this Thursday (12pm GMT) and the matches will take place on either 11/12th November and 15th November. The draw for the Euro finals takes place on Friday 2nd December at 5pm (GMT).
Final Group C table
Final Group C table
|
|
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
F
|
A
|
GD
|
Pts
|
|
Italy
|
10
|
8
|
2
|
0
|
20
|
2
|
+18
|
26
|
|
Estonia
|
10
|
5
|
1
|
4
|
15
|
14
|
+1
|
16
|
|
Serbia
|
10
|
4
|
3
|
3
|
13
|
12
|
+1
|
15
|
|
Slovenia
|
10
|
4
|
2
|
4
|
11
|
7
|
+4
|
14
|
|
Northern Ireland
|
10
|
2
|
3
|
5
|
9
|
13
|
-4
|
9
|
|
Faroe Islands
|
10
|
1
|
1
|
8
|
6
|
26
|
-20
|
4
|
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