England to face Republic of Ireland in Nations League

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Wales manager Rob Page, England boss Gareth Southgate, Scotland manager Steve Clarke and Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill
The Nations League beckons again for Wales manager Rob Page, England boss Gareth Southgate, Scotland manager Steve Clarke and Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill

England have been drawn against the Republic of Ireland, Finland and Greece in their League B group for the men’s 2024-25 Nations League.

Scotland, who feature in the top League A groups, will face Croatia, Poland and Portugal.

Wales have been placed in the same League B group as Iceland, Montenegro and Turkey.

Northern Ireland are to play Belarus, Bulgaria and Luxembourg in their League C group.

Leagues A, B and C each have four groups of four teams, while League D has two groups of three teams.

Scotland won Group B1 last time to earn promotion to League A for the first time, while England dropped a division after finishing bottom of Group A3.

Wales were also in the top tier last time but finished bottom of Group A4 with one point from six games.

The Republic of Ireland have remained in League B since the competition started up and Northern Ireland are in League C again.

England last played the Republic of Ireland in a competitive game in 1991 when they drew 1-1 in a Euro 92 qualifier.

A friendly in 1995 at Lansdowne Road had to be abandoned because of major crowd trouble, while the most recent meeting between the two sides was a friendly in 2020 which England won 3-0.

“There are some good quality games and, of course, a couple of teams we haven’t played for quite a while,” said England manager Gareth Southgate.

“There has been some memorable games against those teams in the past.”

Wales played Turkey in November when the two teams drew 1-1 in a Euro 2024 qualifying group game.

Turkey finished top of the group, while Wales were third and will face Finland in the play-off semi-finals in March as they try to qualify for that tournament in Germany.

“It’s a positive group, we are quite pleased with it,” said Wales manager Rob Page of his team’s Nations League draw.

“We know about Turkey after playing them recently. With regards to the other teams we will have to do a bit more digging.

“We are pretty confident.”

Each team in Leagues A, B and C will play two group games in September, two in October and two in November 2024.

Many teams will play further games in March 2025, with four sides going on to feature in the Nations League finals in June 2025.

Spain are the trophy holders after they beat Croatia on penalties last June.

More to follow.

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