2024-25 UEFA Nations League League phase: 5 September – 19 November 2024 League A quarter-finals and League A/B and B/C play-offs: 20–23 March 2025 Nations League Finals: 4–8 June 2025 League C/D play-offs: 26–31 March 2026 The draw for the league phase was held on 8 February 2024 while the knockout phase draw will be held on 22 November. The final league phase ranking will be used by FIFA to form the five pots for December's draw for the 2026 European Qualifiers. The four highest-ranked UNL group winners which finish outside the top two places in the Qualifiers groups will qualify for the 2026 European Qualifiers playoffs in March 2026.
https://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleague/fixtures-results/#/d/2024-09-05 Thursday, September 5th results:
For some reason my refereeing thread in the referee forum for the UEFA NL got closed without a reason given. So complaining in here about two decisions by the referee. In the 25th minute he should have given the German player a red card for fouling Brobbey with a free run towards the goal and a penalty in the 52nd minute for fouling Gakpo.
Some excellent performances on MDs 1-2. Impressed by Germany, Netherlands and Italy in particular. Germany appear to have improved on their EURO 2024 performance and seem to be heading in the right direction for the upcoming 2026 European Qualifiers.
Great start for Germany against Bosnia-Herzegovina as they take the 2-goal lead inside the 25 minutes.
San Marino scored 3 goals for the first time. According to ELO, it was their 214th game, and their first game was in 1987, but the country existed before then. San Marino had previously scored 2 goals twice, and most recently in 2012. Liechtenstein 1-3 San Marino made San Marino win their League D group, which was a three team group that also had Gibraltar. I wonder if San Marino will get any points when they play the next Nations League in League C. The FIFA Rankings move so slowly and have them so far below the next worst team that I wonder if they will still be in last after getting two wins and a draw in their last four games. Liechtenstein went winless in a League D group. The statistics show that San Marino's win was not by scoring while being dominated for most of the game. Liechtenstein had a majority of possession, but San Marino had big advantages in expected goals (2.49 to 0.40), shots (16 to 13), shots on goal (5 to 3), and combined corner kicks and free kicks (22 to 18). Combined corner kicks and free kicks is a statistic that I made up. Liechtenstein had chances in stoppage time, but they did not score then. There was one penalty kick, which San Marino scored in the 66th. Portugal, France, Germany, and Spain won League A groups. Croatia, Italy, Netherlands, and Denmark were second in League A groups. The draw for the Quarterfinals is on Friday 22 November.
Here are the UNL play-offs draw results. Some nice ties here. Like the Netherlands vs Spain or Italy vs Germany. My fate, however, is to fan for Latvia (my team) to beat the mighty Gibraltar and survive in the League C. Which fixtures will be important for you here?
For the League QFs I plan to watch the Italy-Germany tie, the first time they've played a home-and-away KO tie against each other (although they did play home-and-away in the 2022-23 UNL group phase). For the promotion-relegation playoffs I plan to watch the Greece-Scotland tie with both teams impressing in the group phase. If Greece prevail it'll be the first time they'll be promoted to League A and it'd give them not just very attractive games in the 2026-27 UNL group phase but also the chance to be seeded in pot one for the 2028 European Qualifiers which will be seeded exclusively on the preceding UNL group phase ranking.