Croatia have the chance to win a first major international trophy after reaching the Nations League final, but who will join them?
Italy and Spain face each other on Thursday for the chance to take on Croatia in Sunday’s final.
The biennial international tournament, contested by European nations, is into its third iteration, with France the current holders and Portugal the inaugural winners.
Four top-10 sides in the mix
This year’s Nations League pit together four sides who are currently in the top 10 of Fifa’s world rankings.
It is already-eliminated the Netherlands who lead the way in sixth place, followed by Croatia (seventh), Italy (eighth) and Spain (10th).
Only Croatia came into the event with no previous Nations League final experience.
The Dutch were runners-up in the inaugural tournament won by Portugal in 2019, while Spain beat Italy in the semis in 2021, but were defeated in the final by France.
Croatia may be finals debutants, but they have form behind them in this season’s competition, having finished top of Group A1, in part thanks to a victory in France in June last year.
The Croats also had a good World Cup in Qatar, knocking out Brazil en route to the last four, where they were beaten by eventual winners Argentina, but victory over Morocco gave them third place.
Spain fared less well in the World Cup, suffering a surprise shootout defeat to Morocco in the last 16. Coach Luis Enrique left his role straight after, to be replaced by Luis de la Fuente.
The former Under-21s coach has had an inconsistent start, beating Norway before a 2-0 defeat by Scotland in qualifying games for Euro 2024.
Reigning European champions Italy missed out on the World Cup entirely after losing to North Macedonia in the qualifying play-offs.
Roberto Mancini’s side finished top of a competitive Nations League group that also included England, Germany and Hungary. But they’ve been inconsistent since, losing two of their four games, including 2-1 at home to the Three Lions in Euro 2024 qualifying.
Rotterdam and Enschede are ready
The two previous Nations League finals have been held in Portugal and then Italy but this event is being held in the Netherlands.
The two grounds chosen for the games are the Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam (better known by its nickname De Kuip) and FC Twente’s De Grolsch Veste, located in Enschede.
The former will host the final.
| Game | Date | Round | Ground |
| Netherlands 2-4 Croatia | 14 June | Semi-final | De Kuip |
| Spain v Italy | 15 June | Semi-final | De Grolsch Veste |
| Loser 1st semi v loser 2nd semi | 18 June | Third-place play-off | De Grolsch Veste |
| Winner 1st semi v winner 2nd semi | 18 June | Final | De Kuip |
Euro 2024 qualification, format revisions and more…
As previously mentioned, this is the third edition of the biennial competition devised by Uefa to provide another competitive tournament for nations alongside the World Cup and European Championships.
The 2022-23 version began in May last year with three leagues of 16 teams and a fourth of seven.
League A – the top division – and Leagues B and C were split into four groups of four, while League D is made up of a group of four and a three.
The winners of each group in League A qualify for the upcoming finals, while the winners of each group in Leagues B, C and D secure promotion to the next league up.
Teams who finished bottom of their groups in League A and B – one of which was England – were relegated, and those in League C entered a play-off to decide who dropped to League D.
You can see how all the tables finished here.
This month, Uefa announced three of the 24 places at the 2024 European Championships will be determined by play-off spots via the 2022-23 Nations League.
Twelve teams will be selected based on their performance in the 2022-23 Nations League – nominally the group winners of Leagues A, B and C. But if they have already qualified, they will be replaced by the next best-ranked team in their league.
If there are not enough non-qualified teams in the same league, then it filters down to the next league, finishing with League D.
European football’s governing body also revealed this year that it will revise the Nations League format for 2024-25, which will include the introduction of quarter-finals and promotion play-offs to make it a “more compelling” competition.
Uefa has also announced a Women’s Nations League will begin in autumn 2023 in the build-up to the 2025 Women’s European Championship.
