Northern Ireland return to Windsor Park to host Hungary in Nations League after 315-day gap
Northern Ireland will welcome Hungary to Windsor Park in a UEFA Nations League Group B2 match on Monday, 28 September, marking their first home game at the Belfast stadium in 315 days since 17 November 2025. The fixture comes 51 days shy of a year since a Jamie Donley penalty secured a 1-0 win over Luxembourg in Northern Ireland's previous home outing.
Since that last home match, Michael O'Neill's squad have been on the road five times, a sequence that began with a World Cup play-off defeat by Italy in Bergamo in March and concluded with Friday night's victory over Georgia. The win in Tbilisi was framed in the report as a possible turning point in away form, given Northern Ireland had won just two of their previous 12 competitive away matches.
Windsor Park form has been markedly different to past struggles; since losing to Slovenia in October 2023 only Germany have left Belfast with a win, that 1-0 result occurring on a night when the hosts missed numerous good chances. The current sequence includes seven wins in nine home games, contrasting with the preceding nine home fixtures in which Northern Ireland beat only San Marino and Kosovo, the latter secured by a 94th-minute winner.
Asked about those records, O'Neill downplayed the value of form runs because of changing international squads and praised his current group. "This is a new team, so they're not saddled by the performance of previous teams," he said. "They love playing here at the stadium. You know there was a period where the team of 2016 [who qualified for the European Championships of that year] didn't enjoy playing at home. "Then suddenly they started to win games and they loved playing at home. Teams go through phases and at this moment in time this team is in a really good phase in terms of the home form."
Midfielder Patrick Kelly, who has four of his five caps on the road, said he was eager to play at Windsor Park again after making his debut there in November last year. "I'm buzzing for it," he said. "Obviously, I made my debut there last year in November time and I haven't played there since, it's all been away games. "We haven't been there in a while and I'm really looking forward to it." Goalkeeper Pierce Charles, who saved a penalty from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia against Georgia, added that his last match in Belfast had been in June 2025 because of injury and described his anticipation for the return. "Personally, I've not played there in over a year now and I can't wait to feel the place rocking. I just can't wait to see the fans and hear how loud it's going to be," said the 22-year-old. "I think we thrive off it. It just makes us excited, playing in front of a positive crowd, especially when we're doing well. "They love to get behind us, which we all love, so it just drives us on to do better."
The scheduling presents logistical challenges: Northern Ireland will take the field around 73 hours after the final whistle in Georgia, a trip that required an almost 5,000-mile journey, and O'Neill noted his side actually travelled further to get to Belfast than Hungary did after the visitors played Ukraine in Budapest on Friday. Players were kept on UK time during the trip and flew overnight to return to Belfast on Saturday morning. "The preparation between games is pretty much the same. The difficulty with this game was obviously we had quite a distance to travel - we've travelled further than the away team in this situation," said O'Neill. "But that's the draw and that's the nature of how the fixtures came out but this is a good group."
Monday night is not treated as an ordinary home fixture and broadcasters have scheduled full coverage: kickoff is at 19:45 BST on 28 September with the match live on BBC iPlayer, BBC One NI, BBC Three, BBC Sounds, BBC Radio Ulster and on the BBC Sport website and app, with live text commentary also available online.
O'Neill expressed confidence in his squad's readiness for the Nations League tie, saying: "I think they'll be ready to play."