Northern Ireland’s away match against Slovakia in their FIFA World Cup 2026 qualification campaign will be played in Košice, it was confirmed today.
The penultimate game in stage one of the European qualifiers for both countries is set to be staged at Košická Futbalová Aréna on Friday 14 November.
The stadium in Košice, a city in eastern Slovakia close to the Hungarian border, has a capacity of 12,555. The home of Slovak Super Liga side FC Košice, it is intermittently used by the Slovak Football Association to host international matches.
Michael O’Neill’s side are in four-team Group A for the European WCQs - and they will also face Germany and Luxembourg between September and November this year.
Game number one for Northern Ireland is away to Luxembourg at Stade de Luxembourg on Thursday 4 September, and on Sunday 7 September they are due to face group top seeds Germany at the Rhein-Energie-Stadion in Cologne.
O’Neill’s team will then have a home double header in October. Matchday three will see Slovakia visit the Clearer Twist National Stadium at Windsor Park on Friday 10 October, while on Monday 13 October the Germans are scheduled to visit Belfast.
The final two games in Group A for Northern Ireland are against the Slovakians away on 14 November and against Luxembourg in Belfast on Monday 17 November.
All six games will have a 7.45pm UK time kick-off.
The winners of 12 groups in the European qualifiers will automatically secure a place at the World Cup finals in Canada, Mexico and the United States of America next year.
The World Cup is set to feature 48 teams for the first time next year. And as a result of the expansion the number of places for UEFA member nations has increased from 13 to 16.
The four remaining European places will be decided in March in a 16-team UEFA play-off involving the 12 group stage runners-up and the four best-ranked UEFA Nations League 2024-25 group winners that have neither qualified directly for the FIFA World Cup as group winners nor entered the play-offs already as group runners-up.
