The 2019 UEFA Nations League Finals was the final tournament of the 2018–19 edition of the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

, the inaugural season of the international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

. The tournament was held in Portugal from 5 to 9 June 2019, and was contested by the four group winners of Nations League A. The tournament consisted of two semi-finals, a third place play-off, and final to determine the inaugural champions of the UEFA Nations League.

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

won the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

1–0 against the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

to become the inaugural champions of the UEFA Nations League.

Format

The Nations League Finals took place in June 2019 and was contested by the four group winners of League A. The four teams were each drawn into a five-team group (rather than a six-team group) for the

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, intended to be playe ...

group stage, thereby leaving the June 2019 window available for the Nations League Finals. The competition was played in a knockout format, consisting of two semi-finals, a third place play-off, and a final. The semi-final pairings, along with the administrative home teams for the third place play-off and final, were determined by means of an open draw on 3 December 2018. The tournament took place over five days, with the first semi-final (which featured the host team) on 5 June, the second semi-final on 6 June, and the third place play-off and final on 9 June. The winners of the final were crowned as the inaugural champions of the UEFA Nations League. The Nations League Finals were played in single-leg knockout matches. If the scores were level at the end of normal time, 30 minutes of

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

were played, where each team was allowed to make a fourth substitution. If the score was still level, the winner was determined by a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. All matches in the tournament utilised the

goal-line technology In association football, goal-line technology (sometimes referred to as a Goal Decision System) is the use of electronic aid to determine if a goal has been scored or not. In detail, it is a method used to determine when the ball has completely ...

system. On 3 December, UEFA confirmed that the

video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a Assistant referee (association football), match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those revi ...

(VAR) system would be used for the Nations League Finals.

Qualified teams

The four group winners of League A qualified for the Nations League Finals.

Host selection

Portugal was confirmed as the host country by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting on 3 December 2018 in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland. Only League A teams could bid for the Nations League Finals, and only one of the four participants was selected as hosts. The Nations League Finals was held in two stadiums, each with a seating capacity of at least 30,000. Ideally, the stadiums would have been located in the same host city or up to approximately apart. On 9 March 2018, UEFA announced that Italy, Poland, and Portugal expressed interest in bidding prior to the deadline. The deadline to submit their dossiers was 31 August 2018. As all three associations formed Group A3, the group winner was in line to be appointed as the host, provided that the associations submitted bids that met UEFA's requirements. Poland were relegated from Group A3 on 14 October 2018, leaving Italy and Portugal as potential hosts. On 17 November 2018, Portugal won Group A3 and advanced to the Finals, thereby automatically winning hosting rights, which were confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee on 3 December 2018, the same day as the Nations League Finals draw.

Venues

In their bid dossier, the

Portuguese Football Federation The Portuguese Football Federation ( , FPF) is the governing body of Association football, football in Portugal. The federation was formed in 1914 as Portuguese Football Union (, UPF) by the three existing regional associations of Lisbon Footbal ...

proposed

Estádio do Dragão The Estádio do Dragão (; ') is an all-seater football stadium in Porto, Portugal, and the home ground of FC Porto since 2003. It has a seating capacity of 50,033, making it the third-largest football stadium in Portugal. Designed by Portugue ...

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

and Estádio D. Afonso Henriques in

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved ...

as the venues. Both were previously used in

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

Draw

The draw took place on 3 December 2018, 14:30

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(13:30 local time), at the

Shelbourne Hotel The Shelbourne Hotel is a historic hotel in Dublin, Ireland, situated in a landmark building on the north side of St Stephen's Green. Currently owned by Archer Hotel Capital and operated by Marriott International, the hotel has 265 rooms in tot ...

, Ireland. No seeding was applied in the draw. The first two balls drawn were allocated as the administrative home teams for each semi-final pairing, with the next two balls drawn allocated as their opponents. For scheduling purposes, the semi-final pairing involving the host team was considered to be semi-final 1. The administrative home team for both the third place play-off and final were then jointly drawn between semi-final 1 and 2.

Squads

Each national team had to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom had to be goalkeepers, at least ten days before the opening match of the tournament. If a player became injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he was replaced by another player.

Bracket

All times are local,

WEST West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

(

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

Semi-finals

Portugal vs Switzerland

Netherlands vs England

Third place play-off

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

Assists

Awards

;Team of the Tournament The Team of the Tournament was selected by UEFA's technical observers, and includes at least one player from each of the four participants. UEFA also announced a team of the tournament based on the

FedEx FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company specializing in Package delivery, transportation, e-commerce, and ...

Performance Zone player rankings. ;Player of the Tournament The Player of the Tournament award was given to Bernardo Silva, who was chosen by UEFA's technical observers. * Bernardo Silva ;Young Player of the Tournament The

SOCAR The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (), largely known by its abbreviation SOCAR, is a fully state-owned national oil and gas company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and natural gas from onshore and o ...

Young Player of the Tournament award was open to players born on or after 1 January 1996. The award was given to

Frenkie de Jong Frenkie de Jong (; born 12 May 1997) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays primarily as a midfielder for club Barcelona and the Netherlands national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation and as one ...

, as chosen by UEFA's technical observers. *

;Top Scorer 2019 UEFA Nations League Finals Topscorer Award CR7Museum

The "

Alipay Alipay () is a third-party mobile and online payment platform, established in Hangzhou, China in February 2004 by Alibaba Group and its founder Jack Ma. In 2015, Alipay moved its headquarters to Pudong, Shanghai, although its parent company ...

Top Scorer Trophy", given to the top scorer in the Nations League Finals, was awarded to

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...

, who scored a hat-trick in the semi-final against Switzerland. The ranking was determined using the following criteria: 1) goals in Nations League Finals, 2) assists in Nations League Finals, 3) fewest minutes played in Nations League Finals, 4) goals in league phase 5) fewest yellow and red cards in Nations League Finals, 6) fewest yellow and red cards in league phase. ;Goal of the Tournament The

Goal of the Tournament was decided by online voting. A total four goals were in the shortlist, chosen by UEFA's technical observers, from two players:

(all three goals against Switzerland) and

Matthijs de Ligt Matthijs de Ligt (born 12 August 1999) is a Dutch professional association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Manchester United F.C., Manchester United and the Netherlands national football team, Netherlands ...

(against England). Ronaldo won the award for his second goal against Switzerland.

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for receiving a red card, which could be extended for serious offences. Yellow card suspensions did not apply in the Nations League Finals. The following suspensions were served during the tournament:

Prize money

The prize money to be distributed was announced in October 2018. In addition to the €2.25 million solidarity fee for participating in the Nations League, the four participants received an additional €2.25 million for winning their groups and qualifying for the Nations League Finals. In addition, the participants received payment based on performance: * Winners: €6 million * Runners-up: €4.5 million * Third place: €3.5 million * Fourth place: €2.5 million This meant that the maximum amount of solidarity and bonus fees for the UEFA Nations League winners was €10.5 million.

References

External links

*
2019 UEFA Nations League Finals
UEFA.com
UEFA Technical Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Nations League Finals 2019

Finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

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2018–19 in Portuguese football International association football competitions hosted by Portugal June 2019 sports events in Portugal 2018–19 in Swiss football 2018–19 in Dutch football 2018–19 in English football Sport in Guimarães Football competitions in Porto 21st century in Porto