UEFA Nations League: Hungary drawn with Ukraine, Georgia and Northern Ireland

Marco Rossi's men had been placed in the first pot of seeds in League B of the Nation's League's qualification round and were duly drawn into qualifying group 2. It was then revealed that they will take on Ukraine in Pot 2, Georgia in Pot 3, and Northern Ireland in Pot 4 in the autumn.

Ukraine are ranked 30th in the FIFA world rankings and will contest a World Cup play-off in the spring, with Sweden as its semi-final opponent. Hungary have played their neighbours to the east twice in the past, including Ukraine's first official match in 1992. Georgia are currently ranked 73rd in the world and didn't have a successful World Cup qualifying campaign, but they did participate in the 2024 European Championship even reaching the Round of 16. Northern Ireland are ranked 69th in the world and last played Hungary in 2022, losing 1-0 in a friendly match. Northern Ireland can also still qualify for the World Cup, but they'd have to beat Italy in their play-ff semi-final in March.

"Of course, the group is not as difficult as our A-League group in the last edition, but regardless of that, we'll still have three very tough opponents against whom we'll have a really difficult time," head coach Marco Rossi told mlsz.hu. "Two of our rivals still have a chance to participate in the World Cup and there are no easy matches on the international stage, certainly not these Nations League matches in the autumn. We must focus primarily on ourselves and the most important thing is that our team continues to develop in the coming period."

An important change regarding the scheduling of the matches is that the previous September and October FIFA international periods will be merged, meaning that international duty will begin at the end of September and will extend into the first days of October, during which the teams will play four matches each. The final two matches will then be played in November as usual. The fixture dates will be determined by UEFA and will be announced tomorrow morning.

The first-placed nation from the B League groups will be promoted to the A League, while the fourth-placed team will be relegated to the C League. The country finishing second will face one of the third-placed nations in the A League in a two-legged play-off in the spring to contest a place in the top tier next time, while the third-placed side will play one of the runner-up teams from the C League in a relegation play-off.

Thursday's draw completes the list of opponents for Hungary in 2026, because Marco Rossi's team's opponents in June have also been confirmed. Following the friendly matches against Slovenia and Greece in March, Hungary will host Finland on 5th June in the Puskás Arena, before travelling to take on Kazakhstan four days later.

Finland are currently ranked 75th in the FIFA world rankings, but have achieved some outstanding results in recent years, such as as a 2-1 defeat of Poland in the recent World Cup qualifiers. Kazakhstan are ranked 114th, but are also capable of springing surprises at home, for example, last year when they drew 1-1 with Belgium.

"Very few teams were available because of the World Cup, but I think we'll be able to play two difficult opponents in June," Rossi opined. "We know that Finland have a good team and they're also special opponents for me, because I made my debut against them as Hungary head coach. The Kazakh national team is also a difficult opponent to play away, so I think the two matches will be perfect for us to find out where we are in our development, try out new elements of our game and even give chances to new players."