Ireland fans were surprised this evening after Qatar were added to Ireland's 2022 World Cup qualifying group at the last minute.
The World Cup hosts, already qualified for the tournament, come in as the sixth team in Group A to help their own preparations for the showpiece.
However, all of their fixtures will be friendly games not counting towards the group's points total - all games will also be played in Europe.
And with late reports indicating that the nation were set for a European qualifiers run, an official announcement paired with Ireland's newly released fixture schedule confused a few fans.
One fan said: "Why do we need to play Qatar?"
Another fan was confused seeing Qatar's unfamiliar flag in the fixture list: "What’s the white and brown flag?"
"Why are they playing Qatar home and away?!," one fan asked.
IRELAND'S WORLD CUP FIXTURES
March 24 - Serbia (A)
March 27 - Luxembourg (H)
March 30 - Qatar (H) (friendly)
Sept 1 - Portugal (A)
Sept 4 - Azerbaijan (H)
Sept 7 - Serbia (H)
Oct 9 - Azerbaijan (A)
Oct 12 - Qatar (A) (friendly, in Europe tbc)
Nov 11 - Portugal (H)
Nov 14 - Luxembourg (A)
