Northern Ireland's Michael O'Neill relishing Nations League 'opportunity' for 'young squad' after Paris draw

The UEFA draw in Paris confirmed Northern Ireland’s line-up of rivals across Group C3.

“I think they will be good games for the young squad that we have at the minute. It will be a test for them as part of their development as international players,” said O’Neill. “We have to make sure that we develop as a team and try and get ourselves to the next level.

“I think everyone knows we’ve got a new team, a very young team. We have to develop this group of players going forward, we have to introduce some new players into the group as well, and the Nations League will give us more opportunity to do that ahead of the World Cup qualifiers next March.”

The group C draw is as follows, with Northern Ireland pulled out of Pot 3:

GROUP C1: Sweden, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Estonia.

GROUP C2: Romania, Kosovo, Cyprus, Lithuania/Gibraltar.

GROUP C3: Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Northern Ireland, Belarus.

GROUP C4: Armenia, Faroe Islands, North Macedonia, Latvia.

The draw for the newly-expanded Nations League took place in Paris on Thursday evening.

The 54 competing UEFA nations were scheduled to be paired into four-team groups – with four groups in Leagues A to C and two groups in League D.

The group stage will consist of teams playing each other home and away during the September, October and November international breaks this year.

Whereas in previous tournaments it has been only the winners of each of the four League A groups who have progressed to the Nations League semi-finals the following June, now the winners and runners-up in each group will feature in two-leg quarter-finals in March 2025.

In addition, there will be promotion-relegation play-offs in the same international window. Teams finishing third in groups in Leagues A and B will face play-offs against teams finishing second in groups in Leagues B and C respectively.

The intention of the expansion is to provide further meaningful matches at international level, with the original purpose of the Nations League at its foundation being to take up space in the calendar previously occupied by friendlies.

The Nations League finals in June 2025 will continue to be played as single-leg semis and a final, with one of the last four teams standing serving as hosts.

The primary qualification competition for the 2026 finals begins next year. The 12 group winners in that competition will qualify direct for the finals, with the 12 group runners-up entering play-offs.

However, four play-off berths will also be reserved for the four best-ranked Nations League group winners who have not finished first or second in regular qualifying. The last four European qualifiers for the 2026 finals will be determined by those play-offs in March 2026.