Northern Ireland will face Switzerland and Iceland at Windsor Park in a pair of friendlies over the next couple of months ahead of their World Cup qualifiers later in the year.
The Swiss will be visitors to Belfast on Friday March 21 before Iceland make the trip on Tuesday June 10, both games with a 7:45pm kick-off.
Michael O’Neill’s side only had one game scheduled until their opening World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg in September, a friendly away to Sweden on March 25, but now will have some crucial game time to work with in between.
The Irish FA also confirmed that another away friendly will be scheduled in June, however that will only be confirmed following the Nations League Play-Offs when the World Cup qualifying groups are finalised.
Switzerland will be the more attractive opponents, ranked 20th in the world and having qualified for the last five World Cups, and boasting star names such as Granit Xhaka, Ricardo Rodriguez and Noah Okafor.
But Iceland will also be competitive despite being ranked 70th, with that infamous World Cup win over England still fresh in the mind, and in Johann Berg Gudmundsson they have an experienced and dangerous operator.
O’Neill is currently preparing his side for those World Cup qualifiers against Slovakia, Luxembourg and either Italy or Germany, depending on the outcome of the Nations League, with a place in the Finals next year in Canada, Mexico and the USA the aim.
Northern Ireland are on a hot streak right now having failed to taste defeat in their last four games, picking up two wins over Bulgaria and Belarus and drawing with Belarus and Luxembourg as they finished top of their Nations League group.
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