2020–21 UEFA Nations League A

Following a format change from the first season, League A was expanded from 12 to 16 teams.^[3] The league consisted of the top ranked UEFA members from 1–16 in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League overall ranking, split into four groups of four. Each team played six matches within their group, using the home-and-away round-robin format on double matchdays in September, October and November 2020.^[4] The winners of each group advanced to the 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals, and the fourth-placed team of each group was relegated to the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League B.^[5]

The Nations League Finals was played in a knockout format, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off, and final. The semi-final pairings were determined by means of an open draw. Host country Italy was selected among the four qualified teams by the UEFA Executive Committee, with the winners of the final crowned as the champions of the UEFA Nations League. Though originally planned for 2–6 June 2021, the Nations League Finals were moved to October 2021 following the rescheduling of UEFA Euro 2020 to June and July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[6][7][8]

The four group winners were drawn into groups of five teams for 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (in order to accommodate for the Nations League Finals).

Team changes

The following were the team changes of League A from the 2018–19 season:

The following team changes were initially set to occur in League A, but did not after no teams were relegated due to the format change by UEFA:

Seeding

In the 2020–21 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2018–19 Nations League overall ranking, with a slight modification: teams that were originally relegated in the previous season were ranked immediately below teams promoted prior to the format change.^[9][10] The seeding pots for the league phase were confirmed 4 December 2019,^[11] and were based on the access list ranking.^[5][12]

Pot 1 Team Rank  Portugal (title holders) 1  Netherlands 2  England 3   Switzerland 4

Pot 2 Team Rank  Belgium 5  France 6  Spain 7  Italy 8

Pot 3 Team Rank  Bosnia and Herzegovina 9  Ukraine 10  Denmark 11  Sweden 12

Pot 4 Team Rank  Croatia 13  Poland 14  Germany 15  Iceland 16

The draw for the league phase took place at the Beurs van Berlage Conference Centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 3 March 2020, 18:00 CET.^{[13][14][15][16]} Each group contained one team from each pot.

The original fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 3 March 2020 following the draw.^[17] On 17 June 2020, the UEFA Executive Committee adjusted the league phase schedule for October and November 2020 to allow for the completion of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs.^[18][19] Following the change, a revised schedule for the October and November 2020 fixtures was released by UEFA on 26 June 2020.^[20][21]

Times are CET/CEST,^{[note 1]} as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group 1

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Italy	6	3	3	0	7	2	+5	12	Qualification for Nations League Finals		—	1–1	2–0	1–1
2	Netherlands	6	3	2	1	7	4	+3	11			0–1	—	1–0	3–1
3	Poland	6	2	1	3	6	6	0	7			0–0	1–2	—	3–0
4	Bosnia and Herzegovina (R)	6	0	2	4	3	11	−8	2	Relegation to League B		0–2	0–0	1–2	—

4 September 2020 (2020-09-04)

20:45

Italy	1–1	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sensi 67'	Report	Džeko 57'

Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence

Attendance: 0^{[22][note 2]}

Referee: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (Greece)

4 September 2020 (2020-09-04)

20:45

Netherlands	1–0	Poland
Bergwijn 61'	Report

Johan Cruyff Arena, Amsterdam

Attendance: 0^{[25][note 2]}

Referee: Georgi Kabakov (Bulgaria)

7 September 2020 (2020-09-07)

20:45

Bosnia and Herzegovina	1–2	Poland
Hajradinović 24' (pen.)	Report	Glik 45' Grosicki 67'

Bilino Polje, Zenica

Attendance: 0^{[26][note 2]}

Referee: Cüneyt Çakır (Turkey)

7 September 2020 (2020-09-07)

20:45

Netherlands	0–1	Italy
	Report	Barella 45+1'

Johan Cruyff Arena, Amsterdam

Attendance: 0^{[27][note 2]}

Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)

11 October 2020 (2020-10-11)

18:00

Bosnia and Herzegovina	0–0	Netherlands
	Report

Bilino Polje, Zenica

Attendance: 1,600^[28]

Referee: István Kovács (Romania)

11 October 2020 (2020-10-11)

20:45

Poland	0–0	Italy
	Report

Stadion Energa Gdańsk, Gdańsk

Attendance: 9,200^[29]

Referee: José María Sánchez Martínez (Spain)

14 October 2020 (2020-10-14)

20:45

Italy	1–1	Netherlands
Pellegrini 16'	Report	Van de Beek 25'

Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia, Bergamo

Attendance: 623^[30]

Referee: Anthony Taylor (England)

14 October 2020 (2020-10-14)

20:45

Poland	3–0	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Lewandowski 40', 52' Linetty 45+1'	Report

Stadion Miejski, Wrocław

Attendance: 8,152^[31]

Referee: Craig Pawson (England)

15 November 2020 (2020-11-15)

18:00

Netherlands	3–1	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Wijnaldum 6', 14' Depay 55'	Report	Prevljak 63'

Johan Cruyff Arena, Amsterdam

Attendance: 0^{[32][note 3]}

Referee: François Letexier (France)

15 November 2020 (2020-11-15)

20:45

Italy	2–0	Poland
Jorginho 27' (pen.) Berardi 84'	Report

Stadio Città del Tricolore, Reggio Emilia

Attendance: 0^{[33][note 3]}

Referee: Clément Turpin (France)

18 November 2020 (2020-11-18)

20:45

Bosnia and Herzegovina	0–2	Italy
	Report	Belotti 22' Berardi 68'

Stadion Grbavica, Sarajevo

Attendance: 0^{[34][note 3]}

Referee: Artur Soares Dias (Portugal)

18 November 2020 (2020-11-18)

20:45

Poland	1–2	Netherlands
Jóźwiak 6'	Report	Depay 77' (pen.) Wijnaldum 84'

Silesian Stadium, Chorzów

Attendance: 0^{[35][note 3]}

Referee: Orel Grinfeld (Israel)

Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Belgium	6	5	0	1	16	6	+10	15	Qualification for Nations League Finals		—	4–2	2–0	5–1
2	Denmark	6	3	1	2	8	7	+1	10[a]			0–2	—	0–0	2–1
3	England	6	3	1	2	7	4	+3	10[a]			2–1	0–1	—	4–0
4	Iceland (R)	6	0	0	6	3	17	−14	0	Relegation to League B		1–2	0–3	0–1	—

5 September 2020 (2020-09-05)

18:00 (16:00 UTC±0)

Iceland	0–1	England
	Report	Sterling 90+1' (pen.)

Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík

Attendance: 0^{[36][note 2]}

Referee: Srđan Jovanović (Serbia)

5 September 2020 (2020-09-05)

20:45

Denmark	0–2	Belgium
	Report	Denayer 9' Mertens 76'

Parken Stadium, Copenhagen

Attendance: 0^{[37][note 2]}

Referee: Sandro Schärer (Switzerland)

8 September 2020 (2020-09-08)

20:45

Belgium	5–1	Iceland
Witsel 13' Batshuayi 17', 69' Mertens 50' Doku 80'	Report	H. Friðjónsson 11'

King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels

Attendance: 0^{[38][note 2]}

Referee: Paweł Raczkowski (Poland)

8 September 2020 (2020-09-08)

20:45

Denmark	0–0	England
	Report

Parken Stadium, Copenhagen

Attendance: 0^{[39][note 2]}

Referee: István Kovács (Romania)

11 October 2020 (2020-10-11)

18:00 (17:00 UTC+1)

England	2–1	Belgium
Rashford 39' (pen.) Mount 65'	Report	Lukaku 16' (pen.)

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 0^{[40][note 3]}

Referee: Tobias Stieler (Germany)

11 October 2020 (2020-10-11)

20:45 (18:45 UTC±0)

Iceland	0–3	Denmark
	Report	Sigurjónsson 45' (o.g.) Eriksen 46' Skov 61'

Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík

Attendance: 60^[41]

Referee: Bojan Pandžić (Sweden)

14 October 2020 (2020-10-14)

20:45 (19:45 UTC+1)

England	0–1	Denmark
	Report	Eriksen 35' (pen.)

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 0^{[42][note 3]}

Referee: Jesús Gil Manzano (Spain)

14 October 2020 (2020-10-14)

20:45 (18:45 UTC±0)

Iceland	1–2	Belgium
Sævarsson 17'	Report	Lukaku 9', 38' (pen.)

Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík

Attendance: 60^[43]

Referee: Andris Treimanis (Latvia)

15 November 2020 (2020-11-15)

20:45

Belgium	2–0	England
Tielemans 10' Mertens 24'	Report

Den Dreef, Leuven

Attendance: 0^{[44][note 3]}

Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)

15 November 2020 (2020-11-15)

20:45

Denmark	2–1	Iceland
Eriksen 12' (pen.), 90+2' (pen.)	Report	Kjartansson 85'

Parken Stadium, Copenhagen

Attendance: 141^[45]

Referee: Halil Umut Meler (Turkey)

18 November 2020 (2020-11-18)

20:45

Belgium	4–2	Denmark
Tielemans 3' Lukaku 56', 69' De Bruyne 87'	Report	Wind 17' Chadli 86' (o.g.)

Den Dreef, Leuven

Attendance: 0^{[46][note 3]}

Referee: Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia)

18 November 2020 (2020-11-18)

20:45 (19:45 UTC±0)

England	4–0	Iceland
Rice 20' Mount 24' Foden 80', 84'	Report

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 0^{[47][note 3]}

Referee: Fábio Veríssimo (Portugal)

Group 3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	France	6	5	1	0	12	5	+7	16	Qualification for Nations League Finals		—	0–0	4–2	4–2
2	Portugal	6	4	1	1	12	4	+8	13			0–1	—	4–1	3–0
3	Croatia	6	1	0	5	9	16	−7	3[a]			1–2	2–3	—	2–1
4	Sweden (R)	6	1	0	5	5	13	−8	3[a]	Relegation to League B		0–1	0–2	2–1	—

5 September 2020 (2020-09-05)

20:45 (19:45 UTC+1)

Portugal	4–1	Croatia
Cancelo 41' Jota 58' Félix 70' A. Silva 90+5'	Report	Petković 90+1'

Estádio do Dragão, Porto

Attendance: 0^{[48][note 2]}

Referee: Davide Massa (Italy)

5 September 2020 (2020-09-05)

20:45

Sweden	0–1	France
	Report	Mbappé 41'

Friends Arena, Solna

Attendance: 0^{[49][note 2]}

Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland)

8 September 2020 (2020-09-08)

20:45

France	4–2	Croatia
Griezmann 43' Livaković 45+1' (o.g.) Upamecano 65' Giroud 77' (pen.)	Report	Lovren 17' Brekalo 55'

Stade de France, Saint-Denis

Attendance: 0^{[50][note 2]}

Referee: Ovidiu Hațegan (Romania)

8 September 2020 (2020-09-08)

20:45

Sweden	0–2	Portugal
	Report	Ronaldo 45+1', 72'

Friends Arena, Solna

Attendance: 0^{[51][note 2]}

Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)

11 October 2020 (2020-10-11)

18:00

Croatia	2–1	Sweden
Vlašić 32' Kramarić 84'	Report	Berg 66'

Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb

Attendance: 2,020^[52]

Referee: John Beaton (Scotland)

11 October 2020 (2020-10-11)

20:45

France	0–0	Portugal
	Report

Stade de France, Saint-Denis

Attendance: 1,000^[53]

Referee: Carlos del Cerro Grande (Spain)

14 October 2020 (2020-10-14)

20:45

Croatia	1–2	France
Vlašić 64'	Report	Griezmann 8' Mbappé 79'

Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb

Attendance: 6,266^[54]

Referee: Björn Kuipers (Netherlands)

14 October 2020 (2020-10-14)

20:45 (19:45 UTC+1)

Portugal	3–0	Sweden
B. Silva 21' Jota 44', 72'	Report

Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon

Attendance: 5,000^[55]

Referee: Srđan Jovanović (Serbia)

14 November 2020 (2020-11-14)

20:45 (19:45 UTC±0)

Portugal	0–1	France
	Report	Kanté 54'

Estádio da Luz, Lisbon

Attendance: 0^{[56][note 3]}

Referee: Tobias Stieler (Germany)

14 November 2020 (2020-11-14)

20:45

Sweden	2–1	Croatia
Kulusevski 36' Danielson 45+2'	Report	Danielson 82' (o.g.)

Friends Arena, Solna

Attendance: 0^{[57][note 3]}

Referee: Daniel Siebert (Germany)

17 November 2020 (2020-11-17)

20:45

Croatia	2–3	Portugal
Kovačić 29', 65'	Report	Dias 52', 90' Félix 60'

Stadion Poljud, Split

Attendance: 0^{[58][note 3]}

Referee: Michael Oliver (England)

17 November 2020 (2020-11-17)

20:45

France	4–2	Sweden
Giroud 16', 59' Pavard 36' Coman 90+5'	Report	Claesson 4' Quaison 88'

Stade de France, Saint-Denis

Attendance: 0^{[59][note 3]}

Referee: Aleksei Kulbakov (Belarus)

Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Spain	6	3	2	1	13	3	+10	11	Qualification for Nations League Finals		—	6–0	1–0	4–0
2	Germany	6	2	3	1	10	13	−3	9			1–1	—	3–3	3–1
3	Switzerland	6	1	3	2	9	8	+1	6[a]			1–1	1–1	—	3–0[b]
4	Ukraine (R)	6	2	0	4	5	13	−8	6[a]	Relegation to League B		1–0	1–2	2–1	—

3 September 2020 (2020-09-03)

20:45

Germany	1–1	Spain
Werner 51'	Report	Gayà 90+6'

Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart

Attendance: 0^{[60][note 2]}

Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy)

3 September 2020 (2020-09-03)

20:45 (21:45 UTC+3)

Ukraine	2–1	Switzerland
Yarmolenko 14' Zinchenko 68'	Report	Seferovic 41'

Arena Lviv, Lviv

Attendance: 0^{[61][note 2]}

Referee: Andreas Ekberg (Sweden)

6 September 2020 (2020-09-06)

20:45

Spain	4–0	Ukraine
Ramos 3' (pen.), 29' Fati 32' F. Torres 84'	Report

Alfredo Di Stéfano, Madrid

Attendance: 0^{[62][note 2]}

Referee: Benoît Bastien (France)

6 September 2020 (2020-09-06)

20:45

Switzerland	1–1	Germany
Widmer 58'	Report	Gündoğan 14'

St. Jakob-Park, Basel

Attendance: 0^{[63][note 2]}

Referee: Michael Oliver (England)

10 October 2020 (2020-10-10)

20:45

Spain	1–0	Switzerland
Oyarzabal 14'	Report

Alfredo Di Stéfano, Madrid

Attendance: 0^{[64][note 3]}

Referee: Ali Palabıyık (Turkey)

10 October 2020 (2020-10-10)

20:45 (21:45 UTC+3)

Ukraine	1–2	Germany
Malinovskyi 77' (pen.)	Report	Ginter 20' Goretzka 49'

NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kyiv

Attendance: 17,753^[65]

Referee: Orel Grinfeld (Israel)

13 October 2020 (2020-10-13)

20:45

Germany	3–3	Switzerland
Werner 28' Havertz 55' Gnabry 60'	Report	Gavranović 5', 57' Freuler 26'

RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne

Attendance: 0^{[66][note 3]}

Referee: Ruddy Buquet (France)

13 October 2020 (2020-10-13)

20:45 (21:45 UTC+3)

Ukraine	1–0	Spain
Tsyhankov 76'	Report

NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kyiv

Attendance: 10,495^[67]

Referee: Paweł Gil (Poland)

14 November 2020 (2020-11-14)

20:45

Germany	3–1	Ukraine
Sané 23' Werner 33', 64'	Report	Yaremchuk 12'

Red Bull Arena, Leipzig

Attendance: 0^{[68][note 3]}

Referee: Ovidiu Hațegan (Romania)

14 November 2020 (2020-11-14)

20:45

Switzerland	1–1	Spain
Freuler 26'	Report	Gerard 89'

St. Jakob-Park, Basel

Attendance: 0^{[69][note 3]}

Referee: Willie Collum (Scotland)

17 November 2020 (2020-11-17)

20:45

Spain	6–0	Germany
Morata 17' F. Torres 33', 55', 71' Rodri 38' Oyarzabal 89'	Report

La Cartuja, Seville

Attendance: 0^{[70][note 3]}

Referee: Andreas Ekberg (Sweden)

17 November 2020 (2020-11-17)

20:45

Switzerland	3–0 Awarded[note 4]	Ukraine
	Report

Swissporarena, Lucerne

Referee: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (Greece)

The host of the Nations League Finals, Italy, was selected from the four qualified teams.^[74] The semi-final pairings were determined by means of an open draw on 3 December 2020, 17:30 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. For scheduling purposes, the host team was allocated to semi-final 1 as the administrative home team.^[75]

Times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA.

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	6 October – Milan
	Italy	1
					10 October – Milan
	Spain	2
					Spain	1
	7 October – Turin
					France	2
	Belgium	2
	France	3
					Third place play-off
					10 October – Turin
					Italy	2
					Belgium	1

Semi-finals

6 October 2021 (2021-10-06)

20:45

Italy	1–2	Spain
Pellegrini 83'	Report	F. Torres 17', 45+2'

San Siro, Milan

Attendance: 33,524^[76]

Referee: Sergei Karasev (Russia)

7 October 2021 (2021-10-07)

20:45

Belgium	2–3	France
Carrasco 37' Lukaku 40'	Report	Benzema 62' Mbappé 69' (pen.) T. Hernandez 90'

Juventus Stadium, Turin

Attendance: 12,409^[77]

Referee: Daniel Siebert (Germany)

Third-place play-off

10 October 2021 (2021-10-10)

15:00

Italy	2–1	Belgium
Barella 46' Berardi 65' (pen.)	Report	De Ketelaere 86'

Juventus Stadium, Turin

Attendance: 16,724^[78]

Referee: Srđan Jovanović (Serbia)

Final

10 October 2021 (2021-10-10)

20:45

Spain	1–2	France
Oyarzabal 64'	Report	Benzema 66' Mbappé 80'

San Siro, Milan

Attendance: 31,511^[79]

Referee: Anthony Taylor (England)

There were 143 goals scored in 51 matches, for an average of 2.8 goals per match.

6 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

The 16 League A teams were ranked 1st to 16th overall in the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules:^[5][80]

• The teams finishing first in the groups were ranked 1st to 4th according to the results of the Nations League Finals.
• The teams finishing second in the groups were ranked 5th to 8th according to the results of the league phase.
• The teams finishing third in the groups were ranked 9th to 12th according to the results of the league phase.
• The teams finishing fourth in the groups were ranked 13th to 16th according to the results of the league phase.

Rnk	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	A3	France	6	5	1	0	12	5	+7	16
2	A4	Spain	6	3	2	1	13	3	+10	11
3	A1	Italy	6	3	3	0	7	2	+5	12
4	A2	Belgium	6	5	0	1	16	6	+10	15
5	A3	Portugal	6	4	1	1	12	4	+8	13
6	A1	Netherlands	6	3	2	1	7	4	+3	11
7	A2	Denmark	6	3	1	2	8	7	+1	10
8	A4	Germany	6	2	3	1	10	13	−3	9
9	A2	England	6	3	1	2	7	4	+3	10
10	A1	Poland	6	2	1	3	6	6	0	7
11	A4	Switzerland	6	1	3	2	9	8	+1	6
12	A3	Croatia	6	1	0	5	9	16	−7	3
13	A4	Ukraine	6	2	0	4	5	13	−8	6
14	A3	Sweden	6	1	0	5	5	13	−8	3
15	A1	Bosnia and Herzegovina	6	0	2	4	3	11	−8	2
16	A2	Iceland	6	0	0	6	3	17	−14	0

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