UEFA Nations League: Belgium, France, Italy and Spain reach finals

The four nations will compete in the finals in October 2021

uefa-nations-league

The final phase of the second edition of the UEFA Nations League will feature Italy, Spain, France and Belgium. The first edition was won by Portugal in 2019 on their own turf. The finals will be played in October 2021. As winners of Group A1, Italy will be the host of the tournament. The formal appointment will be done on December 3 at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting.

An open draw will be held on December 3 to determine the semifinal pairings. The first semifinal will be played on October 6, followed byt he second semifinal on October 7. The matches for the third place and the final will be played on October 10. The finals will feature three of the FIFA World Cup winenrs from 2006, 2010 and 2018. Belgium are the only side to have not won the World Cup, but are ranked number one in the world currently. 

Romelu Lukaku scored twice in Belgium's 4-2 victory over Denmark to book a spot in the Nations League’s finals. Italy advanced the finals after beating Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 with Andrea Belotti and Domenico Berardi finding the back of the net. France were the first team to qualify for the finals after they finished top of their group ahead of Sweden, Croatia and defending champions Portugal. Spain followed after finishing top of their group which also featured Germany, Ukraine and Switzerland. Spain thrashed Germany 6-0 to book their place in the finals. The loss was Germany's worst ever defeat in competitive fixtures. 

With the Nations League finals in October 2021 it means that the games occur after the beginning of the World Cup 2022 qualifying (March 2021) and the European Championship (June/July 2021).

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