Uefa Nations League

Uefa confirms new Nations League schedule

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A general view of the trophy during the UEFA Nations League 2020/21 draw at the Beurs van Berlage Conference Centre, Amsterdam.

England will kick off their next Nations League campaign in Iceland on 5 September after Uefa announced a revised schedule for the competition.

The tournament, which only began in 2018 and was won for the first time by Portugal last year, has slightly shifted the dates of some of their group-stage games following the coronavirus pandemic.

While the virus could still prevent the tournament from going ahead should further outbreaks emerge, Uefa has locked in a new schedule to accommodate changes to the international windows.

‘The 2020/21 UEFA Nations League group stage will be played on revised dates in September, October and November 2020,’ a statement by Uefa read.

‘The new schedule was announced following a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee on Wednesday 17 June to discuss the new European football calendar in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.

‘The national team football windows of October and November 2020 will now feature triple-headers instead of double-headers, thus allowing the postponed UEFA EURO 2020 playoffs to be rescheduled for 8 October and 12 November.

‘The group stage matches of the 2020/21 UEFA Nations League will be played on the following dates: 3/4/5 and 6/7/8 September; 10/11 and 13/14 October; 14/15 and 17/18 November 2020.

‘Friendly matches will be played on 7/8 October and 11/12 November.’

The first match day kicks off on 3 September with Germany‘s game against Spain the highlight of the day before Netherlands and Poland face off on 4 September.

Iceland then host England on 5 September with reigning champions Portugal also in action at home against Croatia.

There will be six match days in total with the finals then set to be played at a yet to be confirmed date next year.

Portugal defeated the Netherlands in the tournament’s inaugural final last year with Guedes scoring the sole goal in a narrow 1-0 win.

England’s first foray into the competition had them finish top of their group before losing to the Dutch 3-1 in the semi-finals.

The full group stage schedule of the 2020/21 Nations League can be viewed here.