Romania will face Kosovo, Cyprus, Lithuania, or Gibraltar in the Nations League group stage. The national team will play in League C.
There are 54 national teams participating in the Nations League, and they are divided into four leagues: A, B, C, and D. Lithuania and Gibraltar will play a playoff match in March to determine the team that will be in League C.
First place in the group means direct promotion to League B in the next edition of the Nations League, while second place leads to a promotion playoff. At the same time, fourth place results in direct relegation to League D, while third place keeps the national team in the same competitive tier of the competition, League C, for the next edition.
Romania faced off with Kosovo twice already, resulting in a tie and a victory for Romania. The national team also met Cyprus 13 times, winning 9 and losing just one of the matches.
“One thing is certain, Romania’s goal must be first place, especially since we are talking about a significant opportunity, in parallel with the classic qualifiers, for a potential qualification to the playoff for the 2026 World Cup. Until then, our utmost concentration is on EURO 2024 and everything that entails an optimal approach to the final tournament,” said coach Edward Iordănescu, cited in a press release by the Romanian Football Federation.
League C consists of Group C1 (Sweden, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Estonia), Group C2 (Romania, Kosovo, Cyprus, Lithuania/Gibraltar), Group C3 (Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Northern Ireland, Belarus), and Group C4 (Armenia, Faroe Islands, North Macedonia, Latvia).
The lower League D consists of Group D1 (Lithuania/Gibraltar, San Marino, Liechtenstein), and Group D2 (Moldova, Malta, Andorra).
Romania’s national football team once again ended up in the C pot of the Nations League, the penultimate, just like four years ago, after finishing last in the previous edition, behind Bosnia, Finland, and Montenegro, according to Euronews Romania.
In League C, which Romania is also part of, there is one restriction – Azerbaijan cannot be in the same group as Armenia.
FRF specifies that teams will be drawn from pots in order, meaning that each group will get one team from each pot, starting from the first to the fourth. The position in the group will be the same as the pot from which it is drawn.
The UEFA Nations League ranking also matters for determining the last European teams qualified for the 2026 World Cup. The top four ranked nations in the Nations League, except for teams that finished in the top two places in the preliminary groups, will participate in the World Cup playoff matches, along with the 12 teams that finished second. Consequently, there will be four playoffs, with four teams each, and the matches will be played in a semifinal-final system.
League A
Pot 1: Spain, Croatia, Italy, Netherlands
Pot 2: Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary
Pot 3: Switzerland, Germany, Poland, France
Pot 4: Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Scotland
League B
Pot 1: Austria, Czech Republic, England, Wales
Pot 2: Finland, Ukraine, Iceland, Norway
Pot 3: Slovenia, Ireland, Albania, Montenegro
Pot 4: Georgia, Greece, Turkey, Kazakhstan
(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Stefan Constantin)
