Michael O’Neill’s side are in Group A for stage one of the FIFA World Cup 2026 European qualifiers and will play either Germany or Italy, Slovakia and Luxembourg between September and November 2025.
The Germans and Italians, both former World Cup winners, will play each other in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals in March and the winner of that last eight tie will then meet Northern Ireland and the two other national teams later in the year.
Game number one for Northern Ireland will be away to Luxembourg on Thursday 4 September, and on Sunday 7 September they will be away to either Germany or Italy.
O’Neill’s team will then have a home double header in October. Matchday three will see Slovakia visit the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park on Friday 10 October, while on Monday 13 October either the Germans or Italians will visit Belfast.
The final two games in Group A for Northern Ireland are against Slovakia away on Friday 14 November and against Luxembourg at the National Football Stadium on Monday 17 November.
All six games will have a 7.45pm UK time kick-off. Away venues and ticket details will be announced in due course.
Group A is one of six groups in the qualifiers featuring four teams. Places in four-team qualifying groups have been reserved for teams who will be competing in the Nations League semi-finals next summer – plus two losing quarter-finalists in the UNL.
There will also be six groups of five teams, with all 12 group winners securing a place at the World Cup finals in Canada, Mexico and the United States of America in 2026.
In next year’s European qualifiers teams drawn in groups of five will start qualifying in March and teams in groups of four will begin their campaigns in September.
The expansion of FIFA’s flagship event ahead of the 2026 instalment – the next World Cup is set to feature 48 teams – means the number of places for UEFA member nations is set to increase from 13 to 16.
And that also means the four remaining European places will be decided in March 2026 in a 16-team UEFA play-off involving the 12 group stage runners-up and the four best-ranked UEFA Nations League 2024-25 group winners that have neither qualified directly for the FIFA World Cup as group winners nor entered the play-offs already as group runners-up.
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