Northern Ireland's place in the play-offs for the World Cup finals has been confirmed after Scotland drew with Slovenia.
Only eight of the nine group runners-up will make it through to next month's play-offs and Slovakia, who finished second in Group F at Scotland's expense, ended their qualification campaign with fewer adjusted points than the Northern Irish.
Confirmation of their play-off berth arrived prior to Michael O'Neill's side going 1-0 away to Norway heir final qualifying game. Chris Brunt's wild own goal in Oslo ensured that the likes of Portugal could stand between them and a place in Russia next summer.
A victory over Norway was still important if they wanted to stand a chance of being seeded for that draw, yet Brunt's bizarre own goal 19 minutes from time, in which he hacked an attempted left-footed clearance into his net, essentially scuppered those hopes
Northern Ireland had guaranteed second spot last month with a 2-0 victory over Czech Republic but, with results against the bottom-placed sides in each group discounted in the race for the play-offs, their situation was still not resolved heading into this international break.
They began the day knowing anything other than a Scotland victory would see them make it through regardless of how they fared at the Ullevaal Stadion.
The draw for the play-offs takes place on 17 October
