Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Ireland’s path to the playoffs in the Nations League and a battle to avoid relegation to League C is now clear as Heimir Hallgrimsson knows the identity of his potential opponents for that March battle with possible trips to Bratislava, Pristina, Yerevan or Sofia.
Ireland, looking to stay in League B and escape demotion, will face one of the League C sides Slovakia, Armenia, Kosovo or Bulgaria when the draw for that playoff is made at UEFA HQ in Switzerland on Friday.
Hallgrimsson will attend the draw ahead of another key date in the calendar, a draw in mid-December for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Slovakia, who finished second behind Sweden in their group, and Armenia, runners up to North Macedonia, had already been confirmed for the promotion/relegation playoff.
But the other two spots were up for grabs before Bulgaria and Kosovo sealed their places in the draw on Monday night. Bulgaria were held to a 1-1 draw with Belarus in Sofia but still claimed second place in Group C3, behind table toppers Northern Ireland.
There is a doubt over the outcome of Group C2. In the final round of games on Monday night, Romania won 4-1 at home to Cyprus while Kosovo had a 1-0 home win over Lithuania, so as the group stands, Romania are three points ahead of second-placed Kosovo.
But UEFA have yet to make a call on events in Friday’s game between Romania and Kosovo in Bucharest when the Kosovo players walked off the field in the 90th minute, in response to what they said was abuse from the home crowd in Romania, and the game was abandoned. UEFA are likely to punish Kosovo for failure to complete the game and not award them the points, so that would leave Kosovo in second place and a potential opponent for Ireland.
Kosovo have yet to play Ireland at senior level but the Republic’s record against the other three does not breed confidence ahead of the draw. Ireland drew all four games with Bulgaria in the qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup and in the Nations League in 2020 and the Republic are without a win in the last five meetings with Slovakia.
The Irish side have managed three wins in four clashes with Armenia, all in competitive games, but a 1-0 defeat for Ireland in Yerevan in 2022 shows their difficulty.