Dear Georgia, it's Ireland here, long time no see!
How are you?.. Listen, we're after another favour if it's not too much trouble...
With all three matches in UEFA's World Cup qualifying group D ending in a draw on Sunday, nothing has changed in terms of the table with four games left to play.
Ireland were spared what would have been a damaging loss by Jon Walters' fantastic strike against Austria, but when Aaron Ramsey showed impressive smugness to dink his penalty down the middle and put the Welsh ahead in Belgrade, it looked as though they were about to come roaring back into contention in the group.
Thankfully Serbia managed to find a way back. Alexander Mitrovic didn't have the best of games by any means, but he put the ball in the goal when presented a chance, once again proving to be a massive pain in the arse for Wales after doing the same in the first meeting between the two sides.
The Draw was about as ideal as a result as we could have asked for.
Had Wales managed to hang on, or even find a winner after conceding the equliser, Ireland would be top of the group and one point clear of Serbia, but Wales would be sitting two points behind us. Keep in mind we still have to go to Cardiff in the final fixtue.
A Serbia win would have all but eliminated Wales from contention, just like Austria if we had beaten them, but it also would have put them two points clear of us. As handy as our playoff draw was the last time around, with Serbia to coming to Dublin, we've a very good chance of topping the group. Wouldn't that be nice for a change?
The draw keeps Serbia where we want them, and leaves a nice buffer between ourselves and the Welsh:
It looks good, but it could look a hell of a lot better in September.
Ireland's next fixture is away to Georgia, and that has become an absolutely massive game in the context of this group. If we can manage to get a win there, we would be sitting on 15 points with three games to play right as Wales kick off against Austria (they are the late game again).
That match in Cardiff, should it end in a draw, would see us six points clear of both Wales and Austria with three games to play, one of those being Moldova at home.
If Wales win, Austria are done while we stay 4 points clear of Coleman's men, and the same applies in reverse if Austria can manage to get big away result.
That would then set up what is essentially a battle for an automatic World Cup place between ourselves in Serbia in the next round of fixtures, while the Welsh face a trip to Georgia, a fantastic scenario.
But again, this all depends on us beating Georgia away. We know it's not going to be straightforward, it never is in Tbilisi, but we have to hope the Georgians are going to be sound once again. They really have been a great bunch of lads in terms of letting us beat them and taking points off of our group rivals in the past, but we're going to have to be in good form to get the result especially considering they will have nothing to lose.
This has become the pivotal game in our group, as if we get the win, Georgia then play Austria and Wales in their next two games where a draw would be enough to officially kill either side's chances. And if they're sound enough to lose to us first, you just know someone who's name ends in -ashvili would pop up with a screamer to sort us out even further.
We are in a great position. Georgia away, Serbia at home, Moldova at home, then Wales away. If we can win that first game, and avoid defeat to Serbia, we can call Vladimir Putin and tell him to put the kettle on.
