The 2020–21 UEFA Nations League A was the top division of the
2020–21 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 second 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 ...
. League A culminated with the
Nations League Finals in October 2021 to determine the champions of the competition.
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 ...
were the defending champions, having won the inaugural
2019 finals. However, they failed to qualify for the
2021 finals after finishing second in their group behind
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. None of the teams that had qualified for the previous UEFA Nations League Finals qualified for the 2021 edition.
France 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 ...
2–1 against
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
for their first UEFA Nations League title.
Format
Following a format change from the first season, League A was expanded from 12 to 16 teams. 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. The winners of each group advanced to the
2021 UEFA Nations League Finals
The 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals was the final tournament of the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League, 2020–21 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the second season of the international Association football, football competition involving the men' ...
, and the fourth-placed team of each group was relegated to the
2022–23 UEFA Nations League B.
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
The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...
to June and July 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
The four group winners were drawn into groups of five teams for
2022 FIFA World Cup qualification
The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was the FIFA World Cup qualification, qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar national football team, Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Par ...
(in order to accommodate for the Nations League Finals).
Teams
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. The seeding pots for the league phase were confirmed 4 December 2019, and were based on the access list ranking.
The draw for the league phase took place at the
Beurs van Berlage
The Beurs van Berlage (literally ''Berlage's stock market'') is a building on the Damrak, in the centre of Amsterdam. It was designed as a commodity exchange by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage and constructed between 1896 and 1903. It inf ...
Conference Centre in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, Netherlands on 3 March 2020, 18:00
CET. Each group contained one team from each pot.
Groups
The original fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 3 March 2020 following the draw. 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.
Following the change, a revised schedule for the October and November 2020 fixtures was released by UEFA on 26 June 2020.
Times are
CET/
CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group 1
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Group 2
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Group 3
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Group 4
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Nations League Finals
The host of the Nations League Finals, Italy, was selected from the four qualified teams. 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
Nyon (; historically German language, German: or and Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometer ...
, Switzerland. For scheduling purposes, the host team was allocated to semi-final 1 as the administrative home team.
Times are
CEST (
UTC+2
UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00.
As standard time (year-round)
Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...
), as listed by UEFA.
Bracket
Semi-finals
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Third-place play-off
Final
Goalscorers
Overall ranking
The 16 League A teams were ranked 1st to 16th overall in the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules:
*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.
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:2020-21 UEFA Nations League A
League A