Kosovo vs Ireland prediction and predicted line-ups: a first ever meeting in Pristina without Rrahmani and Collins, Nations League

Kosovo and the Republic of Ireland have never met. That changes on Thursday 24 September in Pristina, in the opening round of the 2026/27 Nations League, between two sides who fell at the last hurdle for the World Cup in March: Kosovo lost the play-off final 1-0 at home to Turkey, Ireland went out on penalties in Czechia in the semi-final. Franco Foda's Kosovo have lost their captain Amir Rrahmani, and Heimir Hallgrímsson's Ireland are without theirs, Nathan Collins.

Kosovo vs Ireland: kick-off time and venue

Kosovo vs Ireland kicks off at 19:45 UK and Irish time (20:45 Central European time) on Thursday 24 September at the Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Pristina. It is Group B3 of League B in the Nations League, with Austria and Israel: the winners go up to League A and the runners-up into a play-off. Belgium's Lawrence Visser referees, with his compatriot Jan Boterberg on VAR.

Team news

Napoli's Amir Rrahmani quit international football on 11 September after a dispute with the federation president, ending a spell of 67 caps and seven years as captain. Foda is also without the injured Elvis Rexhbeçaj and Florent Muslija, and has now lost Donat Rrudhani, who had been expected to start: FCSB's Meriton Korenica has come in. On the plus side, record scorer Vedat Muriqi hit four against Eyüpspor on Sunday 20 September and has six in six for Fenerbahçe, while Juventus's Edon Zhegrova scored twice against Sassuolo (our call was no more than four goals, confidence 7 out of 10: wrong), beating his international team-mate Arijanet Muric, and set one up against Atalanta on Sunday (our call was no more than four goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct).

Ipswich's Dara O'Shea takes the armband for Ireland. Collins (calf), Jamie McGrath and Harvey Vale, both injured after being called up, Josh Cullen, still recovering from cruciate surgery, and Evan Ferguson are all missing, while Séamus Coleman and Robbie Brady, both without clubs, were left out.

Kosovo vs Ireland predicted line-ups

There is no Kosovo XI that stands up, not least because both previews going round include Rrudhani. They agree on Sassuolo's Muric in goal, Udinese's Vojvoda, Dellova, Hajdari and Gallapeni in defence, Zhegrova and Rashica out wide and Muriqi up front. Then comes the system: a 4-2-3-1 with Avdullahu and Emërllahu in midfield, or a 4-4-2 with Hoxha in the middle and Asllani alongside Muriqi. Rashica has barely played for Besiktas, though, and Asllani was injured early in the season.

The two Ireland predictions both use a back three and share eight names: Kelleher in goal, O'Brien and O'Shea at the back, Molumby, Knight and Manning in midfield, and Azaz behind Parrott. The open questions are the third centre-back, Egan or Scales, the right wing-back, Udinese's Abankwah or Ogbene, and who plays off Parrott, Ogbene or Moylan. The official line-ups are released about an hour before kick-off.

Head-to-head and form

No previous meetings. Before losing to Turkey, Kosovo won 4-3 in Slovakia, and in qualifying they beat Sweden home and away and drew 1-1 with Switzerland. Ireland reached the play-offs by beating Portugal 2-0 and winning 3-2 in Hungary; in Czechia it finished 2-2 and 4-3 on penalties. Troy Parrott arrives having scored the goal that made it 3-2 for Real Betis at Lille in their opening Champions League game.

Our Kosovo vs Ireland prediction

Our call is no more than three goals, confidence 6 out of 10. Seven of the two sides' last ten competitive games finished with three goals or fewer, the exceptions being Kosovo's 4-3 in Slovakia, Ireland's 3-2 in Hungary and their 2-2 in Czechia, and in six of those ten games one of the two teams failed to score. The rest of the round is in our matchday one preview.

Every game with our calls is on the Nations League page. The record of settled calls is in the results history, and our calls on individual players are in player predictions.