Belfast draws Croatia's Euro 2028 group on 6 December

On Sunday 6 December 2026, the International Convention Centre in Belfast draws the 12 groups for Euro 2028 qualifying, and Croatia learns its opponents for March to November 2027. UEFA confirmed the venue on 17 September 2026. Each group has four or five teams, and every team plays the others home and away. The 12 group winners and the eight best runners-up go straight to the finals in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Croatia's group, its fixture list and its home venues are still open. They follow from the draw, and the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) then names the stadiums.

How the draw in Belfast works

UEFA calls it a new, consolidated qualifying format. Belfast City Council lists the draw among its events and says the qualifiers begin in March 2027. The start time of the ceremony is still to be announced. UEFA's rules for the draw are in Article 13 of the Euro 2028 regulations. Teams are seeded by the interim overall ranking of the 2026/27 Nations League, and the draw takes place after the league phase of that competition ends in November.

• The four Nations League quarter-final winners each go into a different group of four. The draw uses placeholders, because those ties are played in March 2027.
• A group of five takes at most one defeated quarter-finalist or one team from the League A/B or B/C play-offs.
• The four hosts, England, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, play qualifying too. They go into separate groups, and so does Northern Ireland.
• Two places at the finals are reserved for the two best-ranked hosts that miss direct qualification.
• The remaining places go to play-offs in March 2028 between the other runners-up and the best-ranked Nations League group winners still without a ticket.

The Nations League sets Croatia's pot

Croatia plays in Group A3 of the Nations League with Spain, England and Czechia. Coach Slaven Bilić's team won 2:1 in Prague on 26 September. Then came a 4:1 defeat in Seville, a 0:7 against England in Rijeka and a 1:2 against Spain at Poljud in Split on 6 October. After four matches Croatia has three points and a goal difference of minus 10, Index.hr reports. Czechia stands on minus 8. The England match in Rijeka was played behind closed doors under a UEFA sanction, HNS says.

Wembley on 12 November, Osijek on 15 November

Two matches remain. England host Croatia at Wembley in London on Thursday 12 November at 20:45 Croatian time. On Sunday 15 November at 20:45, Croatia plays Czechia at Opus Arena in Osijek. To stay in pot 1, Croatia has to finish in the top three of its group, Index.hr writes. One point against Czechia is enough for third place. A Czech win in Osijek could lift Czechia to third and push Croatia to fourth, which means pot 2 for the Belfast draw.

The final group position also decides Croatia's place in League A. UEFA's rules for the 2026/27 edition give each finish a different path:

• First and second place: Nations League quarter-finals from 25 to 30 March 2027.
• Third place: the two best third-placed teams of League A stay up, the two lowest go to the League A/B play-offs.
• Fourth place: the two best fourth-placed teams go to the League A/B play-offs, the two lowest drop to League B.

A play-off in March 2027

The League A/B play-offs run from 25 to 30 March 2027 against the four runners-up of League B, UEFA says. Index.hr quotes simulations by the data platform Football Meets Data. They give Croatia an 88.8 percent chance of third place and 83.1 percent for the play-off. Slovenia is the most likely opponent at 19.1 percent, ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina at 14.9 percent, Kosovo at about nine percent and Northern Ireland at 8.4 percent. These are projections. The pairings depend on the final tables.

Euro 2028 in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales

The finals have 24 teams in nine stadiums. The opening match is on Friday 9 June 2028 at the National Stadium of Wales in Cardiff. The semi-finals follow on 4 and 5 July, and the final is on Sunday 9 July at Wembley. Matches kick off at 15:00, 18:00 and 21:00 Croatian time. The draw for the final tournament is in 2027. UEFA lists these stadiums:

• London: Wembley Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
• Cardiff: National Stadium of Wales
• Dublin: Dublin Arena
• Glasgow: Hampden Park
• Manchester: Manchester City Stadium, and Liverpool: Everton Stadium
• Newcastle: St James' Park, and Birmingham: Villa Park

Home matches and tickets after the draw

HNS spreads its home matches across the country. In 2026 Croatia played in Split (Poljud), Rijeka (Rujevica), Varaždin (Gradski stadion) and Osijek (Opus Arena). Belgium came to Rijeka on 2 June and Slovenia to Varaždin on 7 June. The venues for the 2027 qualifiers follow after the draw. HNS publishes prices, dates and sales rules for each match on hns.family. Its recent sales followed the same pattern:

• Sales usually open about 20 days before a match, HNS says on its ticket page.
• Tickets are sold online on the HNS ticket portal hns.ulaznice.hr and at selected Petrol filling stations near the venue.
• Every ticket lives in the free HNS Ulaznice app for iOS and Android. The app is the only way into the stadium. Print at home has ended.
• Loyal fans buy first. The HNS loyalty programme counts tickets bought on the portal under a fan's Croatian personal number (OIB) over five years, and the top fans get a 24-hour pre-sale.
• For the Spain match in Split, only Croatian citizens could buy, up to four tickets each. The other people in the group did not need Croatian citizenship.
• Prices at Poljud for Spain ran from 30 euros behind the goals to 65 euros in the central stands in pre-sale, five euros more on match day. In Rijeka against Belgium they ran from 25 to 50 euros.
• Fans with disabilities apply through a separate HNS portal. Children under 16 need an adult, and HNS advises against bringing children under four.

Big home matches sell out within minutes. For Croatia against Turkey at Opus Arena on 12 October 2023, the first national team match in Osijek's new stadium, all tickets sold between 15:28 and 15:36, Index.hr reported. The stadium held 13,000 spectators that night, and the 1,000 fans with the most matches in five years had the first chance to buy. HNS also warns of fake ticket websites that copy its look. It reported them to the Croatian Interior Ministry and asks fans to reach the portal only through its official channels.

Still to be announced

• The start time of the draw on 6 December.
• The pots, after the last Nations League matches on 17 November.
• Croatia's group, opponents and matchdays for 2027.
• The home venues, ticket prices and sale dates, which HNS publishes match by match.
• A possible League A/B play-off in March 2027, which depends on the final Nations League tables.