In just a couple of days, the 2020/2021 UEFA Nations League will kick off, with matchday one set to start on Thursday, September 3rd. The inaugural edition of this competition was won by Portugal in June 2019, who narrowly edged out the Netherlands 1-0 in the final.
55 teams from across Europe will be taking part in this competition, which will take place across three phases. The first is the league phase, which will span from September to November of this year. Next year, the next phase will begin in either September or October with the Nations League Finals, and in March 22, there will be another stage - the relegation play-outs which will determine what bottom-placed League C teams end up being relegated to League D.
Interestingly, there also have been some changes to the format in this tournament as it enters its sophomore season. During its debut, the teams were split into the following: 12 teams in League A, 12 teams in League B, 15 teams in League C, and 16 teams in League D. That meant that each league had four groups with three or four teams in each group, meaning that things were very difficult for some teams - especially those in League A.
However, with the reformat, there are now 16 teams in Leagues A, B and C and seven in League D. That means that League A has four teams of four teams each - and this has benefited one big team from suffering what would have been a demoralizing demotion to League B. That team is none other than Germany, who performed dismally in their trio alongside France and the Netherlands, but are still in League A. Elsewhere, 2018 World Cup runners up Croatia also manage to stay in the top tier despite finishing bottom of their trio thanks to this new format as well.
Here's all you need to know ahead of matchday one of the 2020/2021 UEFA Nations League, which starts on September 3 and concludes on September 8th, including some of the key fixtures that you won't want to miss. Fans in the USA can follow many of these games on ESPN's various channels, including ESPN2 and ESPN+ for live streaming as well as, in some cases, ABC, and for Spanish-speaking fans, some matche are being played on TUDN and live streamed on Univision.
UEFA Nations League Matchday one broadcast information
Highlight games:
Thursday, September 3rd
- Germany vs Spain at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
Friday, September 4th
- Italy vs Bosnia at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
- Netherlands vs Poland at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
Saturday, September 5th
- England vs Iceland at 09:00 PST/12:00 EST/17:00 BST/18:00 CET
- Sweden vs France at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
- Denmark vs Belgium at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
- Portugal vs Croatia at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
Sunday, September 6th
- Spain vs Ukraine at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
- Switzerland vs Germany at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
Monday, September 7th
- Netherlands vs Italy at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
Tuesday, September 8th
- Belgium vs Iceland at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
- Denmark vs England at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
- France vs Croatia at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
- Sweden vs Portugal at 11:45 PST/14:45 EST/20:45 BST/21:45 CET
