Nations League matchday 1 preview: Netherlands host Germany, Italy meet Belgium, and the world champions go to England

Twenty-six matches in three days, and the pick of them is the last: Spain, world champions since they beat Argentina after extra time in the World Cup final on 19 July, go to England on Saturday evening in a rematch of the Euro 2024 final. Before that, Thursday opens League A with Netherlands v Germany, who drew 2–2 in the last edition and then met again a month later, Germany winning 1–0, and Friday has Italy v Belgium, a fixture Italy have not lost in the three most recent meetings. All fourteen groups across the four tiers start this week, from Andorra v Malta at four o'clock on Thursday to North Macedonia v Switzerland on Saturday night.

Thursday

Andorra v Malta (16:00 UTC). League D, Group 1, the three-team group completed by Gibraltar. The first match of the whole campaign.

Netherlands v Germany (18:45 UTC). League A, Group 2. The last three meetings: Germany 2–1 in a friendly in March 2024, then Netherlands 2–2 Germany in September 2024 and Germany 1–0 Netherlands in October. The Dutch have not beaten Germany in any of them.

Serbia v Greece (18:45 UTC). The other Group 2 match. Serbia and Greece make up the group with the two above.

Portugal v Wales (18:45 UTC). League A, Group 4. These two have not met since Euro 2016, when Portugal beat Wales 2–0 on 6 July.

Norway v Denmark (18:45 UTC). Same group. The last meeting was a friendly in June 2024, which Denmark won 3–1.

Austria v Israel (18:45 UTC). League B, Group 3, and the fixture with the goals in it. Four meetings since 2019, 23 goals, and the home side won every time: Israel 4–2 in March 2019, Austria 3–1 that October, Israel 5–2 in September 2021 and Austria 4–2 two months later.

Kosovo v Republic of Ireland (18:45 UTC). The other Group 3 match.

Liechtenstein v Lithuania (18:45 UTC). League D, Group 2, with Azerbaijan the third side.

Friday

Georgia v Northern Ireland (16:00 UTC). League B, Group 2, alongside Hungary and Ukraine.

Armenia v Latvia (16:00 UTC). League C, Group 2.

Türkiye v France (18:45 UTC). League A, Group 1. France have not beaten Türkiye in their last two meetings, both in Euro 2020 qualifying: Türkiye 2–0 in June 2019, then 1–1 in October.

Italy v Belgium (18:45 UTC). The other Group 1 match. Italy 2–1 Belgium in October 2021, Italy 2–2 Belgium in October 2024, and Italy 1–0 away in November 2024 — all three in this competition.

Hungary v Ukraine (18:45 UTC). League B, Group 2.

Poland v Bosnia and Herzegovina (18:45 UTC). League B, Group 4. They met in the 2020 Nations League and Poland won both: 2–1 away in September, 3–0 at home in October.

Sweden v Romania (18:45 UTC). Same group. Sweden won both Euro 2020 qualifiers, 2–1 at home in March 2019 and 2–0 away in November; Romania's last win was a 1–0 friendly in March 2018.

Montenegro v Cyprus (18:45 UTC). League C, Group 2.

Saturday

Slovenia v Scotland (13:00 UTC). League B, Group 1, and the earliest kick-off of the round. The last two meetings were World Cup qualifiers in 2017: Scotland 1–0 in March, then 2–2 in October.

San Marino v Finland (16:00 UTC). League C, Group 1.

Faroe Islands v Kazakhstan (16:00 UTC). League C, Group 3.

Iceland v Estonia (16:00 UTC). League C, Group 4.

Bulgaria v Luxembourg (16:00 UTC). The other Group 4 match in League C.

England v Spain (18:45 UTC). League A, Group 3. Spain won the Euro 2024 final 2–1 on 14 July 2024. Before that, the 2018 Nations League: England 1–2 Spain in September, then Spain 2–3 England a month later — the away side won both.

Czechia v Croatia (18:45 UTC). The other Group 3 match. Croatia beat Czechia 5–1 in a World Cup qualifier in June 2025; the return in October was 0–0, and the Euro 2020 group meeting was 1–1.

Albania v Belarus (18:45 UTC). League C, Group 1.

Slovakia v Moldova (18:45 UTC). League C, Group 3.

North Macedonia v Switzerland (18:45 UTC). League B, Group 1, closing the round.

The format

Four tiers, A to D. Leagues A, B and C have four groups of four; League D has two groups of three. Each side plays the others in its group home and away, over six matchdays: 24–26 September, 27–29 September, 1–3 October, 4–6 October, 12–14 November and 15–17 November.

The League A groups: France, Italy, Belgium and Türkiye in Group 1; Germany, Netherlands, Serbia and Greece in Group 2; Spain, Croatia, England and Czechia in Group 3; Portugal, Denmark, Norway and Wales in Group 4.

Numbers to know

• Twenty-six matches: eight on Thursday, eight on Friday, ten on Saturday. One kicks off at 13:00 UTC, seven at 16:00 and eighteen at 18:45.
• Fifty-four teams are in the competition and 52 play this week. Gibraltar and Azerbaijan, in the three-team League D groups, sit out matchday 1.
• Austria v Israel has produced 23 goals in four meetings since 2019, and the home side has won all four.
• Spain have beaten England in two of the last three meetings, including the Euro 2024 final; England's one win in that run was 3–2 away in October 2018.

Matchday 2 follows straight on, 27–29 September, with every side playing again. The full round with kick-off times in your time zone is on the Nations League page.