Nations League draw: England and Republic of Ireland to meet again
England and the Republic of Ireland will meet competitively for the first time since 1991 in the next edition of the Nations League.
Gareth Southgate’s side and the Republic are also up against the Euro 2004 winners, Greece, and Finland in Group B2. They avoided a long trip to Kazakhstan under Uefa’s excessive travel restriction rules, with the former Soviet republic placed in Group B3 instead.
The last competitive encounter between England and the Republic was a Euro 92 qualifier at Wembley, where a Niall Quinn goal cancelled out Lee Dixon’s opener. A friendly in 1995 at Lansdowne Road had to be abandoned due to crowd trouble, and the teams’ most recent meeting was a November 2020 friendly which England won 3-0.
Wales will be up against Iceland, Montenegro and Turkey in Group B4. Steve Clarke’s Scotland face Croatia, Portugal and Poland in Group A1. Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland were drawn in Group C3, where they will take on Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Belarus.
The league phase will be played between September and October before League A quarter-finals and promotion/relegation play-offs take place in March 2025. Single-leg semis and a final will be played in June 2025.
The England manager, Gareth Southgate, said the aim for his side is to gain promotion back to League A. He told Sky Sports: “There’s some teams we haven’t played for a while, there’s going to be some difficult games for us. I think everybody in England will think it was a big disappointment to drop down to League B but you still have difficult games. Obviously our objective will be we have to try to win the group to get back up into League A.”
Southgate admitted England have had mixed fortunes in the Nations League in previous years: “We’ve had varied experiences. The first time we finished third, the second two have been complicated for us, in all three versions we’ve used it to look at new players.
“Of course you have to balance looking at new players with winning games and we didn’t manage to do that last time. The competition pairs the best with the best and my impressions of it have been really good. Unfortunately the second one reminds me of Covid and the third one we didn’t play well and it was the buildup to a World Cup, so that was complicated for us.”
Before the Nations League kicks off, this year’s European Championship will take place in Germany over the summer. England were runners-up at Euro 2020 and Southgate insists his focus remains on this year’s tournament. “Yes, our entire focus is on [the Euros],” he told Sky Sports. “I know we’re here for a draw for a different competition but all we’re thinking about is our preparation for Germany and we’re really looking forward to the competition.
“We’re very pleased with our team. We have confidence in what we’ve done over the last six or seven years but you have to go and deliver that when it really counts.”