Northern Ireland’s men’s Under-21 side will begin their qualification campaign for U21 Euro 2027 with a trip to Georgia.
Tommy Wright’s team are set to meet the Georgians, Germany, Greece, Latvia and Malta in the 2025-27 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying group stage (Group F).
Georgia are second seeds in the group, with Germany the top seeds, and Northern Ireland will begin their campaign away to the Georgians on 9 September this year.
The following month the U21s will face both Malta and Germany at home – on 9 and 14 October respectively.
And game number four is also a home game. It’s against Latvia on 13 November.
Wright pointed out: “We were a Pot 4 team in the draw for the qualifiers so we were always going to meet some tough opposition. Germany are the stand-out team, however Georgia and Greece are strong, too.
“It’s a difficult group, but I’m excited about the campaign and looking forward to it. It will be a chance for our players to test themselves against top teams.”
Northern Ireland finished fourth in Group F of the UEFA U21 Euro 2025 qualifiers behind England, Ukraine and Serbia.
Wright will have 10-12 players who took part in that campaign at his disposal for the forthcoming campaign, providing him with a solid platform to build on.
The U21s boss said he is looking forward to working with those players again and with new faces coming up from the U19s.
He added: “The players know that if they do well then Michael (O’Neill) will have no hesitation in promoting them to the senior team.”
Group games will be completed by October next year, followed by play-offs in November 2026 ahead of the final tournament in June 2027 in Albania and Serbia.
The nine group winners and the runner-up with the best record against the top five in their group qualify directly for the final tournament. The eight other runners-up will contest play-offs to determine the four remaining finalists.
Northern Ireland will complete their fixtures in Group F with two home games in October 2026 – against Georgia and Greece.
The full fixture list for the U21s in the U21 Euro 2027 qualifying group stage is as follows:
