Denmark book World Cup spot with 5-1 rout

Despite falling behind to a Shane Duffy strike after only six minutes, Denmark regrouped and made light work of the hosts, scoring five unanswered goals to book a place at next year’s tournament in Russia.

The Republic had held the Scandinavian team goalless during the first leg, but it was not to be for coach Martin O’Neill’s team, who had no response to an Andreas Christensen strike midway through the first half, which was swiftly followed by Eriksen’s first.

The Tottenham Hotspur star then went on to score another two in the uneven contest, before Denmark striker Nicklas Bendtner wrapped things up with a late penalty.

Two places up for grabs

The playoff at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium was one of the final qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup. Qualifying wraps up this week with Honduras traveling to Sydney, Australia, and Peru hosting New Zealand in Lima for the two inter-confederation playoffs.

Australia and Honduras remain honors even after playing out a goalless draw in San Pedro Sula.

The Socceroos will take heart from the return of their talismanic Tim Cahill, who headed them to victory against Syria.

In addition, Australia has only lost one World Cup qualifier on home soil since 1981, according to FIFA.

The first leg of the Oceania-CONCACAF playoff also ended 0-0 in Wellington.

Victory over the Kiwis would see Peru in the World Cup finals for the first time since 1982.

Monday night saw one of the shocks of the qualifying rounds, with four-time champions Italy eliminated by Sweden.