Irish Football Association chief executive Patrick Nelson admitted Northern Ireland had been handed a difficult draw in the 2020-21 Nations League.
The Green and White Army must take on Austria, Norway and Romania in the autumn in the second edition of UEFA's newest international competition, which proved a surprise hit first time around.
Although the focus will be on this month's Euro 2020 play-off semi-final match against Bosnia and Herzegovina first, Nelson was looking forward to what lies ahead beyond that.
"We're in with some strong opposition," he said.
"We have faced all of these teams in fairly recent history, Romania en route to our Euro 2016 adventure, Norway in the 2018 World Cup campaign and Austria in the inaugural Nations League tournament.
"The more competitive football our men's senior team get the better and I hope we start the campaign on the back of a summer being involved in Euro 2020, which remains our number one priority."
The team will be under new management for the Nations League, with Michael O'Neill set to depart before then after taking on a club job with Stoke.
Northern Ireland have won four and lost four of their 11 meetings with the Austrians, having first played them at the 1982 World Cup in Spain.
They have lost their three most recent encounters with them though.
They have only beaten Norway twice in their nine meetings with them, losing the other seven. They faced them most recently in qualification for the 2018 World Cup.
Romania were group opponents for Northern Ireland en route to qualification for Euro 2016.
IFA chief: Nations League draw 'tough' for NI
