Italy will host Northern Ireland in a single-leg World Cup play-off semi-final on March 26, after the play-off draw was completed at FIFA headquarters in Switzerland on Thursday afternoon.
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The winner of that tie will face Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina a few days later, on March 31. That will also be a one-off match, with the winner advancing to the final World Cup in North America in the summer.
You can see how the World Cup play-off draw unfolded on Football Italia Liveblog.
O’Neill on Italy vs. Northern Ireland: “We always felt it would be difficult”
BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA – NOVEMBER 14: Northern Ireland head coach Michael O’Neill watches before the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying match between Slovakia and Northern Ireland at the Kosicka Futbalova Arena on November 14, 2025 in Bratislava, Slovakia. (Photo by David Balogh/Getty Images)
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Northern Ireland finished their qualifying group in third place, behind Germany and Slovakia, but earned a place in the play-offs thanks to their Nations League finish.
Of the four teams Italy could have faced in the play-off semi-finals, Northern Ireland are the worst ranked – Sweden are currently 43rd in the latest rankings. FIFA RankingAccording to data updated on Wednesday, Romania ranks 47th, North Macedonia 65th and Northern Ireland 69th. Italy is currently ranked 12th.
O’Neill, speaking after Thursday’s draw, did not deny the fact that Italy will be a difficult task for his players.
“It’s a difficult draw. We always thought it would be like this. We have to accept what happens in this situation. We always knew we were going to be away from home,” he said.
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“Italy will be the hardest we can do, but ultimately we have to believe that we can go there and get a surprising result. It would be one of the most important results in our history if we can achieve it. We have to believe that, as a young team, we are capable of doing it.”
He continued: “We have given a good account of ourselves in the World Cup qualifiers away from home, although the result in Germany got out of hand in the last 20 minutes and we lost the game in Slovakia due to a corner in stoppage time.
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND – NOVEMBER 17: Jamie Donley of Northern Ireland celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifying match between Northern Ireland and Luxembourg at Windsor Park on November 17, 2025 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
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“I think the team has developed throughout the six qualifying matches and the most important thing for us will be to be as strong as possible in March.
“We obviously had to deal with injuries and some suspensions in the six games we had and there’s no doubt that affected us, but we hope we’ll be as close to full strength as possible in March.”