UEFA Nations League draw explainer - England or another Greek Odyssey amongst options for Boys in Green

The UEFA Nations League draw takes place in Paris on Thursday at 5pm Irish time where the 54 teams in UEFA will be divided in four leagues. The Republic of Ireland are to be drawn out in League B.

When the competition gets going, as usual, each team will play six matches in their group, one home and one away against the other three nations in the group. However there is an expanded knockout round to be played in March 2025.

The League A group winners and runners-up will participate in home-and-away quarter-finals, while the fourth-placed teams in Leagues A and B are automatically relegated to League B and C respectively.

The four group winners in Leagues B and C, as well as the two group winners in League D, are automatically promoted to Leagues A, B and C respectively.

The third-ranked teams of League A and the runners-up of League B, as well as the third-ranked teams of League B and the runners-up of League C, will play a home-and-away promotion/relegation play-off.

The pot allocations mean the Boys in Green could be drawn in a group with England, Ukraine and a return to face recent foes Greece.

As a team ranked 26^th in Europe, Ireland will be drawn from Pot 3 and so will face one team from Pot 1 (Austria, Czechia, England or Wales), a team from Pot 2 (Finland, Ukraine, Iceland or Norway) and finally one team from Pot 4 (Georgia, Greece, Turkey or Kazakhstan).

Due to excessive travel distances Kazakhstan can only be drawn against one of the following teams (England, Iceland, Republic of Ireland or Wales).

Should a team be drawn in a group that contains Kazakhstan and one of those four named sides, then they will be placed in the next available alphabetical group.

At present Ukraine (and Belarus) are playing their matches in neutral venues.

Dates

The matches will take place across six matchdays:

1: 5-7 September 2024

2: 8-10 September 2024

3: 10-12 October 2024

4: 13-15 October 2024

5: 14-16 November 2024

6: 17-19 November 2024

Knockout round play-off draw: November 2024
Knockout round play-offs: 20-25 March 2025

Teams will generally play their double headers Thursday and Sunday, on Friday and Monday, or on a Saturday and Tuesday with teams in the same group playing on the same day.

Friendlies

The Boys in Green will also play two friendlies in June against Hungary and Portugal.

The FAI confirmed that Hungary will visit Dublin on Tuesday June 4 before Ireland travel to Portugal for a match in Aveiro on Tuesday 11 June. 

President Higgins welcomes four President's Cup representatives to Áras an Uachtaráin https://t.co/LyM0O1pZqEpic.twitter.com/JEZNCSEhLK

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