{"id":581627,"date":"2025-11-20T02:22:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T02:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581627\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T02:22:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T02:22:35","slug":"northern-ireland-fans-reveal-which-world-cup-play-off-opponent-they-want-to-face-its-cheap-to-get-to-and-the-people-there-love-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581627\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland fans reveal which World Cup Play-Off opponent they want to face: \u2018It\u2019s cheap to get to and the people there love tourists\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

NI fans face travel and accommodation in the likes of Denmark, Italy, Turkey or a potential neutral venue across Europe if Ukraine is drawn\n<\/p>\n

While the team will find out who they are playing in the draw on Thursday at noon, some fans have given us their view on their preferred opponents based on the potential implications of travel costs and accommodation.<\/p>\n

Possible opponents include one of either Turkey, Denmark, Italy or Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The match is set to take place on March 26 and no matter who Northern Ireland are drawn against, it will be an away game.<\/p>\n

Fans could be traveling to Denmark, Turkey, Italy, or if Ukraine is drawn, the fixture will instead take place in a neutral country.<\/p>\n

\"Copenhagen\"<\/p>\n

Copenhagen<\/p>\n

This destination won\u2019t be confirmed until the opponents are selected, but some fans have guessed it may take place in Poland, Hungary or even England.<\/p>\n

In terms of price, if it is assumed fans are travelling to their opponent\u2019s country from around March 25-27 in time for the match, England is (no surprise) the cheapest.<\/p>\n

With direct flights from Belfast to London costing just \u00a341 and a hotel stay costing on average \u00a3100 per night, a fixture against Ukraine could work out the most affordable and practical.<\/p>\n

The cost of a match in Poland is similar, with direct flights from Belfast to Krakow costing \u00a3104 and a hotel stay costing roughly \u00a380 per night.<\/p>\n

\"Turkey.<\/p>\n

Turkey. Stock image. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n

For Kaitlyn McCullough from Belfast, she hopes Northern Ireland draws Ukraine and the game happens in Poland.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoland is a beautiful country, it\u2019s cheap to get to and the people there love tourists,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A match in Ukraine\u2019s other possible venues would be much more expensive for fans.<\/p>\n

There are no direct flights from Belfast to Budapest, so fans travelling from Belfast to Hungary would need to go to Dublin airport.<\/p>\n

A flight from Dublin to Budapest costs around \u00a3130 with a hotel stay costing an average of \u00a3100 a night.<\/p>\n

Yet many Northern Ireland fans are still hoping for a game against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of a tie that I\u2019d deem in some way \u201cwinnable\u201d I think we would have to be hopeful of getting Ukraine, given that it would also be a neutral venue,\u201d said superfan, Andrew Tully.<\/p>\n

\"Exterior<\/p>\n

Exterior of the Colosseum in Rome. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t beaten either Italy or Turkey in my lifetime and it\u2019ll be a tall order to change that. But the prospect of playing in a World Cup qualifier at the San Siro or Istanbul would also be quite the experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither way, we will be travelling whatever the outcome,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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A match in Istanbul would also mean a flight out of Dublin for NI fans as there are no direct flights from Belfast available around the date of the match.<\/p>\n

A flight from Dublin to Istanbul costs \u00a3183 with an average hotel stay costing \u00a370 a night.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland fan Ryan Martin said he would happily travel to any of the possible locations.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A horse and carriage carries tourists in Krakow, Poland<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve never been to [Italy] . It looks beautiful, but ultimately would be a very tough game for us.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoland and Hungary, I\u2019ve been to both and really love the culture of both, actually spent a few nights there, before the Slovakia game,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

If the match took place in Rome fans would have to travel from Dublin, with flights costing \u00a3151 and a hotel stay costing \u00a3130 per night.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, if the draw leads to Northern Ireland facing Denmark, it will be an expensive trip for fans, with flights from Dublin to Copenhagen costing \u00a3127 with the average hotel stay costing around \u00a3200.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NI fans face travel and accommodation in the likes of Denmark, Italy, Turkey or a potential neutral venue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1611,1144,8538,16,15,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-581627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-jessica-rice","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-northern-ireland-football-team","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115579647775287880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}