Having lead Group D at the half-way stage, a very disappointing 2017 for Martin O'Neill's men saw Irish fans checking LiveScore all night on Thursday as we knew that we needed a couple of other nations to do us a favour.
While none of this matters unless Ireland win their next two games, we still needed results to go our way tonight to give us any hope of reaching the playoffs as one of the best ranked second-place teams.
We'll also need a few more favours tomorrow night, but regarding the fixtures that took place before we kick off against Moldova, did we get what we were looking for?
There were five games that could impact our standing on the night, so here is what we needed along with what actually happened to keep you up to speed.
GROUP C:
Northern Ireland v Germany
Ideal result: Big Germany win to reduce Northern Ireland's goal difference.
Actual result: Northern Ireland 1-3 Germany.
Highlight:
Sebastian Rudy's goal in the first-minute was out of this world:
GROUP E:
Armenia v Poland
Ideal result: Any Poland win.
Actual result: Armenia 1-6 Poland.
Highlight:
Robert Lewandowski scoring an indirect free-kick from inside the six-yard box.
Montenegro v Denmark
Ideal result: Draw.
Actual result: Montenegro 0-1 Denmark
Highlight:
Christian Eriksen being really good at kicking the football into the goal.
GROUP F:
England v Slovenia - England win
Ideal result: England win.
Actual result: England 1-0 Slovenia
Highlight:
Harry Kane rescuing England from being booed out of Wembley.
Scotland v Slovakia - Scotland win
Ideal result: Scotland win.
Actual result: Scotland 1-0 Slovakia
Highlight:
Martin Skrtel's own goal being a massive boost for Ireland.
What It All Means:
It's very simple, Scotland and England's wins are big for Ireland, as if Scotland fail to win their final group game against Slovenia, and Ireland beat both Moldova and Wales, we are in the playoffs.
The results in other groups were good aside from Denmark who will likely be out of reach, but if you had offered us this at the start of the night we would have taken it, as if we get our jobs done there is a good chance we will be able to fight it out for a place in Russia.
Here is how the second-placed rankings look after tonight's results:
