Nations League quarter-final draw: Spain play Netherlands, Germany face Italy

Nyon: Reigning Nations League champion Spain will play the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, while former tournament winner France takes on Croatia after the draw for the knockout stage was held in Nyon on Friday night.

Germany was drawn against Italy, while Portugal, which was the winner of the inaugural edition of the Nations League, will face Denmark.

While the quarterfinals will be played over two legs home and away in March, the semifinals are single legs, which will take place in June, with the third-place playoff and final to be played three days later.

European champion Spain, Portugal and Germany topped their groups without losing a game to go into the seeded teams’ pot along with France.

Spain has not played the Netherlands since a friendly match in November 2020. In their last competitive game, the Dutch thrashed the then-reigning world champions 5-1 at the 2014 World Cup.

The winners of that game will play either Croatia or France in the semifinals. France and Croatia have played each other four times in the Nations League.

Portugal is also looking to win a second title, and it still has Cristiano Ronaldo going strong. Ronaldo, who will be 40 when the knockout stage begins, leads the goal-scoring charts in League A with five goals.

Only Sweden’s Viktor Gyokeres (nine goals in League C), Norway’s Erling Haaland (seven goals in League B) and Romanian midfielder Razvan Marin (six goals in League C) have scored more than Ronaldo in the 2024-25 tournament.

In the previous edition of the Nations League, only the top team from each group qualified for the knockout stage and went straight through to the semifinals. Agencies

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