Contents

2018–19 UEFA Nations League A

2018–19 UEFA Nations League A

Tournament details
Dates	League phase: 6 September – 20 November 2018 Nations League Finals: 5–9 June 2019
Teams	12
Final positions
Champions	Portugal (1st title)
Runners-up	Netherlands
Third place	England
Fourth place	Switzerland
Tournament statistics
Matches played	28
Goals scored	81 (2.89 per match)
Attendance	1,143,530 (40,840 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Haris Seferovic (5 goals)
2020–21 →

The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League A was the top division of the 2018–19 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA.^[1] League A culminated with the Nations League Finals in June 2019, which crowned Portugal as the inaugural champions of the UEFA Nations League.

Format[edit]

League A consisted of the top 12 ranked UEFA members, split into four groups of three. The winners of each group advanced to the UEFA Nations League Finals. The third-placed team of each group was initially to be relegated to the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League B,^[2] but remained in League A following UEFA's reformatting of the next edition's groups.^[3]

The Nations League Finals took place in June 2019 and was played in a knockout format, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off, and 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.^[4] Host country Portugal was selected among the four qualified teams on 3 December 2018 by the UEFA Executive Committee,^[5] with the winners of the final crowned as the inaugural champions of the UEFA Nations League.

The four group winners were drawn into groups of five teams for the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying competition (in order to accommodate for the Nations League Finals). In addition, League A was allocated one of the four remaining UEFA Euro 2020 places. Four teams from League A which had not already qualified for the European Championship finals competed in the play-offs, which were played in October and November 2020. The play-off berths were first allocated to the group winners, and if any of the group winners had already qualified for the European Championship finals, then to the next best ranked team of the league, etc. If there were fewer than four teams in League A which had not already qualified for the European Championship finals, the play-off berths would be allocated to the next best ranked team of the following league, etc. The play-offs consisted of two "one-off" semi-finals (best-ranked team vs. fourth best-ranked team and second best-ranked team vs. third best-ranked team, played at home of higher-ranked teams) and one "one-off" final between the two semi-final winners (venue drawn in advance between semi-final 1 and 2).^[6][7]

Seeding[edit]

Teams were allocated to League A according to their UEFA national team coefficients after the conclusion of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying group stage on 11 October 2017. Teams were split into three pots of four teams, ordered based on their UEFA national team coefficient.^[8][9] The seeding pots for the draw were announced on 7 December 2017.^[10]

Pot 1 Team Coeff Rank  Germany 40,747 1  Portugal 38,655 2  Belgium 38,123 3  Spain 37,311 4

Pot 2 Team Coeff Rank  France 36,617 5  England 36,231 6   Switzerland 34,986 7  Italy 34,426 8

Pot 3 Team Coeff Rank  Poland 32,982 9  Iceland 31,155 10  Croatia 31,139 11  Netherlands 29,866 12

The group draw took place at the SwissTech Convention CenterinLausanne, Switzerland on 24 January 2018, 12:00 CET.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Groups[edit]

The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 24 January 2018 following the draw.^[17][18]

Times are CET/CEST,^{[note 1]} as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group 1[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification[a]
1	Netherlands	4	2	1	1	8	4	+4	7[b]	Qualification for Nations League Finals		—	2–0	3–0
2	France	4	2	1	1	4	4	0	7[b]			2–1	—	2–1
3	Germany	4	0	2	2	3	7	−4	2			2–2	0–0	—

Germany	0–0	France
	Report

Attendance: 67,485^[19]

Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy)

France	2–1	Netherlands
Mbappé 14' Giroud 75'	Report	Babel 67'

Attendance: 76,452^[19]

Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)

Netherlands	3–0	Germany
Van Dijk 30' Depay 87' Wijnaldum 90+3'	Report

Attendance: 52,536^[19]

Referee: Cüneyt Çakır (Turkey)

France	2–1	Germany
Griezmann 62', 80' (pen.)	Report	Kroos 14' (pen.)

Attendance: 77,300^[19]

Referee: Milorad Mažić (Serbia)

Netherlands	2–0	France
Wijnaldum 44' Depay 90+6' (pen.)	Report

Attendance: 44,366^[19]

Referee: Anthony Taylor (England)

Germany	2–2	Netherlands
Werner 9' Sané 20'	Report	Promes 85' Van Dijk 90+1'

Attendance: 42,186^[19]

Referee: Ovidiu Hațegan (Romania)

Group 2[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification[a]
1	Switzerland	4	3	0	1	14	5	+9	9[b]	Qualification for Nations League Finals		—	5–2	6–0
2	Belgium	4	3	0	1	9	6	+3	9[b]			2–1	—	2–0
3	Iceland	4	0	0	4	1	13	−12	0			1–2	0–3	—

Switzerland	6–0	Iceland
Zuber 13' Zakaria 23' Shaqiri 53' Seferovic 67' Ajeti 71' Mehmedi 82'	Report

Attendance: 14,912^[20]

Referee: Michael Oliver (England)

Iceland	0–3	Belgium
	Report	E. Hazard 29' (pen.) Lukaku 31', 81'

Attendance: 9,710^[20]

Referee: Sergei Karasev (Russia)

Belgium	2–1	Switzerland
Lukaku 58', 84'	Report	Gavranović 76'

Attendance: 39,049^[20]

Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (Spain)

Iceland	1–2	Switzerland
Finnbogason 81'	Report	Seferovic 52' Lang 67'

Attendance: 8,663^[20]

Referee: Andreas Ekberg (Sweden)

Belgium	2–0	Iceland
Batshuayi 65', 81'	Report

Attendance: 28,891^[20]

Referee: Orel Grinfeld (Israel)

Switzerland	5–2	Belgium
Rodríguez 26' (pen.) Seferovic 31', 44', 84' Elvedi 62'	Report	T. Hazard 2', 17'

Attendance: 15,000^[20]

Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy)

Group 3[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification[a]
1	Portugal	4	2	2	0	5	3	+2	8	Qualification for Nations League Finals		—	1–0	1–1
2	Italy	4	1	2	1	2	2	0	5			0–0	—	1–1
3	Poland	4	0	2	2	4	6	−2	2			2–3	0–1	—

Italy	1–1	Poland
Jorginho 78' (pen.)	Report	Zieliński 40'

Attendance: 24,000^[21]

Referee: Felix Zwayer (Germany)

Portugal	1–0	Italy
A. Silva 48'	Report

Attendance: 52,635^[21]

Referee: Willie Collum (Scotland)

Poland	2–3	Portugal
Piątek 18' Błaszczykowski 77'	Report	A. Silva 32' Glik 43' (o.g.) B. Silva 52'

Attendance: 48,783^[21]

Referee: Carlos del Cerro Grande (Spain)

Poland	0–1	Italy
	Report	Biraghi 90+2'

Attendance: 41,692^[21]

Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia)

Italy	0–0	Portugal
	Report

Attendance: 73,000^[21]

Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)

Portugal	1–1	Poland
A. Silva 34'	Report	Milik 66' (pen.)

Attendance: 29,917^[21]

Referee: Sergei Karasev (Russia)

Group 4[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification[a]
1	England	4	2	1	1	6	5	+1	7	Qualification for Nations League Finals		—	1–2	2–1
2	Spain	4	2	0	2	12	7	+5	6			2–3	—	6–0
3	Croatia	4	1	1	2	4	10	−6	4			0–0	3–2	—

England	1–2	Spain
Rashford 11'	Report	Saúl 13' Rodrigo 32'

Attendance: 81,392^[22]

Referee: Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)

Spain	6–0	Croatia
Saúl 24' Asensio 33' Kalinić 35' (o.g.) Rodrigo 49' Ramos 57' Isco 70'	Report

Attendance: 26,900^[22]

Referee: Benoît Bastien (France)

Croatia	0–0	England
	Report

Attendance: 0^{[22][note 2]}

Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)

Spain	2–3	England
Alcácer 58' Ramos 90+8'	Report	Sterling 16', 38' Rashford 30'

Attendance: 50,355^[22]

Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland)

Croatia	3–2	Spain
Kramarić 54' Jedvaj 69', 90+3'	Report	Ceballos 56' Ramos 78' (pen.)

Attendance: 33,018^[22]

Referee: Aleksei Kulbakov (Belarus)

England	2–1	Croatia
Lingard 78' Kane 85'	Report	Kramarić 57'

Attendance: 78,221^[22]

Referee: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (Greece)

Nations League Finals[edit]

The host of the Nations League Finals, Portugal, was selected from the four qualified teams. The semi-finals pairings were determined by means of an open draw, along with the administrative home teams for the third place play-off and final. The draw took place on 3 December 2018, 14:30 CET (13:30 local time), at the Shelbourne HotelinDublin, Republic of Ireland.^[4][24] For scheduling purposes, the semi-final pairing involving the host team was considered to be semi-final 1.

Times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA (local times are in parentheses).

Bracket[edit]

	Semi-finals				Final
	5 June 2019 – Porto
	Portugal	3
					9 June 2019 – Porto
	Switzerland	1
					Portugal	1
	6 June 2019 – Guimarães
					Netherlands	0
	Netherlands (a.e.t.)	3
	England	1
					Third place play-off
					9 June 2019 – Guimarães
					Switzerland	0 (5)
					England (p)	0 (6)

Semi-finals[edit]

Portugal	3–1	Switzerland
Ronaldo 25', 88', 90'	Report	Rodríguez 57' (pen.)

Attendance: 42,415^[25]

Referee: Felix Brych (Germany)

Netherlands	3–1 (a.e.t.)	England
De Ligt 73' Walker 97' (o.g.) Promes 114'	Report	Rashford 32' (pen.)

Attendance: 25,711^[26]

Referee: Clément Turpin (France)

Third-place play-off[edit]

Switzerland	0–0 (a.e.t.)	England
	Report
Penalties
Zuber Xhaka Akanji Mbabu Schär Drmić	5–6	Maguire Barkley Sancho Sterling Pickford Dier

Attendance: 15,742^[27]

Referee: Ovidiu Hațegan (Romania)

Final[edit]

Portugal	1–0	Netherlands
Guedes 60'	Report

Attendance: 43,199^[28]

Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)

Goalscorers[edit]

There were 81 goals scored in 28 matches, for an average of 2.89 goals per match.

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

Cristiano Ronaldo

André Silva

Sergio Ramos

2 goals

Thorgan Hazard

Tin Jedvaj

Andrej Kramarić

Raheem Sterling

Antoine Griezmann

Memphis Depay

Virgil van Dijk

Quincy Promes

Georginio Wijnaldum

Rodrigo

Saúl

Ricardo Rodríguez

1 goal

Harry Kane

Jesse Lingard

Olivier Giroud

Kylian Mbappé

Toni Kroos

Leroy Sané

Timo Werner

Alfreð Finnbogason

Cristiano Biraghi

Jorginho

Ryan Babel

Matthijs de Ligt

Jakub Błaszczykowski

Arkadiusz Milik

Krzysztof Piątek

Piotr Zieliński

Gonçalo Guedes

Bernardo Silva

Paco Alcácer

Marco Asensio

Dani Ceballos

Isco

Albian Ajeti

Nico Elvedi

Mario Gavranović

Michael Lang

Admir Mehmedi

Xherdan Shaqiri

Denis Zakaria

Steven Zuber

1 own goal

Kyle Walker (against Netherlands)

Kamil Glik (against Portugal)

Overall ranking[edit]

The 12 League A teams were ranked 1st to 12th overall in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules:^[2][29]

• 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.

Rnk	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	A3	Portugal	4	2	2	0	5	3	+2	8
2	A1	Netherlands	4	2	1	1	8	4	+4	7
3	A4	England	4	2	1	1	6	5	+1	7
4	A2	Switzerland	4	3	0	1	14	5	+9	9
5	A2	Belgium	4	3	0	1	9	6	+3	9
6	A1	France	4	2	1	1	4	4	0	7
7	A4	Spain	4	2	0	2	12	7	+5	6
8	A3	Italy	4	1	2	1	2	2	0	5
9	A4	Croatia	4	1	1	2	4	10	−6	4
10	A3	Poland	4	0	2	2	4	6	−2	2
11	A1	Germany	4	0	2	2	3	7	−4	2
12	A2	Iceland	4	0	0	4	1	13	−12	0

Prize money[edit]

The prize money to be distributed was announced in March 2018.^[30] Each team in League A received a solidarity fee of €1.5 million. In addition, the four group winners received double this amount via a €1.5M bonus fee.

The four group winners of League A, which participated in the Nations League Finals, also received the following fees based on performance:

• Winners: €4.5M
• Runners-up: €3.5M
• Third place: €2.5M
• Fourth place: €1.5M

This meant that the maximum amount of solidarity and bonus fees for a team from League A was €7.5M.

Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs[edit]

The four best teams in League A according to the overall ranking that did not qualify for UEFA Euro 2020 through the qualifying group stage were set to compete in the play-offs, with the winners qualifying for the final tournament. As Iceland were the only team in League A that did not qualify, the remaining three slots were allocated to teams identified according to the path formation rules to be the three best-ranked un-qualified non-group winners from League C not drawn to Path C.

League A

Rank	Team
1 GW	Portugal
2 GW	Netherlands[H]
3 GW	England[H]
4 GW	Switzerland
5	Belgium
6	France
7	Spain[H]
8	Italy[H]
9	Croatia
10	Poland
11	Germany[H]
12	Iceland

Key

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website