UEFA Nations League finals: all you need to know

What was it?

The final phase of the second edition of UEFA's newest national-team competition took place between 6 and 10 October 2021 in Milan and Turin, Italy.

Who was involved?

The four group winners of the top-ranked League A:

Belgium
France
Italy
Spain

What were the results?

The finals draw took place on Thursday 3 December 2020:

Semi-finals

Wednesday 6 October: Italy 1-2 Spain (San Siro, Milan)
Thursday 7 October: Belgium 2-3 France (Juventus Stadium, Turin)

Match for third place (Juventus Stadium, 10 October)
Italy 2-1 Belgium

Final (San Siro, 10 October)
Spain 1-2 France

Where were the finals?

The four finals games took place at two of Italy's most famous venues, the San Siro in Milan and Turin's Juventus Stadium.

Three associations with teams in Group A1 declared an interest in hosting the tournament: Italy, the Netherlands and Poland. The winners of this group (Italy) were confirmed as finals hosts at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting on 3 December.

What was the finals format?

• The semi-final winners advanced to the final; defeated teams contested the match for third place.
• For the semi-finals and final, if scores were level at the end of normal time, extra time was to be played. If the scores were still level after the additional 30 minutes, the game was to be settled via a penalty shoot-out. All three games were settled within normal time, however.
• For the match for third place, there was to be no extra time. If the scores were level after the end of normal time, the game would have gone to a penalty shoot-out. Again, this was not required.

What did the winners get?

First and foremost, this fetching 71cm-tall sterling silver trophy.

Was this linked to 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying?

In order to free up space in October 2021, the four UEFA Nations League finalists were drawn into five-team groups for qualifying (rather than six-team groups).