Kvaratskhelia test and four-game window await O'Neill's young Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland are back in the second tier of the Nations League for the first time since 2020, and Michael O'Neill's side face a campaign that represents a step up in both quality and quantity. From a daunting meeting with Georgia's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to an 11-day, four-game window, there is plenty to unpack as the 2026 Nations League campaign gets under way.
Four games in 11 days
For the first time since June 2022, Northern Ireland will face four games in the same international window. The run starts away to Georgia on 25 September and ends at home to the same opposition on 5 October, with Hungary at Windsor Park and Ukraine in Slovakia sandwiched in between. The manager has named a 28-man panel for the games, compared with the 23 players he brought along for June's double-header of friendlies against Guinea and France.
O'Neill admitted the schedule was challenging but said his team "must deal" with the change, given the same four-game window will return next year during Euro 2028 qualifying. "I think for a smaller association, it poses more challenges if I'm honest. If a player picks up a calf strain the Saturday before we meet up, he's going to miss four games. It's a window that, I believe, is more beneficial for the bigger nations," he said. "I'm sure within the period, players will get injured... It will be challenging, but it's the way the window will be going forward."
Kvaratskhelia and the step up to League B
The campaign also signals a rise in the quality of opposition, not least in the shape of Georgia's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a player O'Neill calls one of the best in the world. While Northern Ireland have sought friendlies against Spain, France, Sweden and Denmark over the past two and a half years, and faced Germany in World Cup qualifying, these will be the side's first games in the second tier of the Nations League since 2020.
Topping a League C group that also contained Luxembourg, Belarus and Bulgaria last time around was enough to secure a backdoor route into this year's World Cup play-offs, where Northern Ireland were beaten 2-0 by Italy in Bergamo. Promotion means securing such a safety net for Euro 2028 will be tougher, but League B status does mean a top-two finish in the group would put them in the second band of seeds for December's qualifying draw.
"I do think it's a group that is quite well matched in terms of where the teams are," said O'Neill. "Obviously some of the teams are ranked a lot higher than us, I don't think we should be frightened by that. I think the games will be extremely tough, but I think it's a great challenge."
Finding the spark without Conor Bradley
Reflecting on his role with Fifa's Technical Study Group at the World Cup, O'Neill noted how many games "were decided by individual brilliance" rather than the general superiority of winning teams. Once again, however, he will have to do without the player in his own squad most likely to produce such moments.
While Isaac Price has been a more regular source of goals, Liverpool's Conor Bradley carries a talismanic quality. Since the beginning of 2025, the 23-year-old has endured a luckless run, missing seven Northern Ireland games through either injury or suspension. Still sidelined after January knee surgery, Bradley is expected to be absent for the entirety of this campaign, with O'Neill telling BBC Sport NI last month that it would be a "bonus" to see his captain before the start of Euro 2028 qualifying in March.
The numbers underline his influence: since a 1-0 win over Scotland in March 2024 — the occasion of Bradley's first international goal — Northern Ireland have averaged 1.5 goals a game in 16 internationals with him in the side, compared with just 0.7 goals per game in the seven he has missed. Finding a different creative spark in his absence will be key to the campaign.
Progression expected from a youthful panel
While there was natural disappointment after the loss to Italy in March, there has long been a sense that this group's best chance of major tournament qualification lies in the years ahead. Of the starting XI in Bergamo, only Hull City's 31-year-old defender Paddy McNair is older than 26. The average age of the 28-man squad is just 24, with a quartet of teenagers — Ceadach O'Neill, Kieran Morrison, Braiden Graham and Tom Atcheson — giving the panel an even more youthful look.
In addition to McNair, the only other players in the squad older than 30 are central striking options Dion Charles, 30, and Josh Magennis, 36. O'Neill, however, is expected to stick with the 21-year-old Jamie Donley up top as he continues to build for the qualification campaigns ahead.
The Tottenham Hotspur player has scored twice in 10 caps and started the past five games for Northern Ireland, but endured a difficult 2025-26 season at club level on loan at Stoke City and Oxford United. Despite featuring for Spurs during pre-season, he will spend this year with Luton Town, back on loan in League One where he impressed for Leyton Orient in 2024-25.
"What happened with Jamie last year was not really of Jamie's doing," said O'Neill. "The game time at Stoke was, I think, unfair on the player, to be honest. The second loan he gets injured in his first game but the games he did play, he did well. I think the thing for Jamie is just to play regularly. I think he's got all the attributes of a top, young player. He's still a Tottenham player on a long-term contract and I think he's gone to a good club (in Luton)."
With the future of Arsenal forward Ceadach O'Neill seemingly close to being settled — the 18-year-old appears set to add to his two senior caps across the next two weeks, likely ruling out any future switch of international allegiance despite an approach from the Republic of Ireland — Northern Ireland's return to League B promises both continuity and new tests over a gruelling fortnight.