DEFEAT IN Bucharest last evening has left Ireland facing the prospect of the lottery of, the play-offs to qualify for the World Cup finals in France next summer.

It is now accepted by the, Irish management team that with Romania winning their first six qualifying games, the top placing in Group 8 has effectively been decided.

It means that the Irish now join Macedonia and Lithuania in what may well turn into a dogfight for second place in the table and a ticket to the play offs.

Lithuania, who have yet to play Ireland in the current competition, left many questions unanswered when struggling to a 2-0 win over Liechtenstein in Vaduz yesterday with goals from Jankauskas and Razanauskas, relegating Ireland to fourth place in the table.

This was Liechtenstein's best performance since they drew with Ireland in the European Championships two years ago and may well have dealt a significant blow to the Lithuanians' hopes of going through on goal difference.

Commenting on the result from Liechtenstein Mick McCarthy said. "It goes to prove that there are few easy touches left in international football, but I am certainly not complaining.

"I still think we can claim second place in the table but obviously a lot is going to depend on the results of our two games with Lithuania and that important visit to Iceland in September."

The official FIEA observer at last night's game is understood to have been upset by the incident in which Ray Houghton was struck by a coin thrown from the crowd. Stadium officials were seen to move into the area of the stadium from which the coin was thrown, but local officials said that no arrests had been made.

They confirmed, however, that the FIFA observer had mentioned the incident to them after the game and it now remains to be seen what action will be taken at the next meeting of FIFA's disciplinary committee.

Another disturbing feature of the evening from FIFA's viewpoint was the number of players booked. A total of eight bookings was way above the average, even for the most competitive of World Cup games, and will obviously be a cause of renewed concern for officialdom.

Fortunately, none of the three Irish players booked, Gary Kelly, Denis Irwin and Kenny Cunningham, were previously disciplined and all will be available for selection for the next game in the programme, against Liechtenstein on May 21st.