UEFA on Friday announced a revised schedule for the group stages of the 2020/21 Nations League which will be played in September, October and November this year. The tournament had to change the schedule due to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The new schedule was announced following a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee on Wednesday 17 June to discuss the new European football calendar in light of the COVID-19 outbreak,” the European governing body of football said in an official statement.
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“The national team football windows of October and November 2020 will now feature triple-headers instead of double-headers, thus allowing the postponed UEFA EURO 2020 play-offs to be rescheduled for 8 October and 12 November,” it added.
The group stage matches will be played on September 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10; October 13 and 14 and on November 14, 15, 17 and 18. The dates for the following rounds of the competition are yet to be announced.
On the first matchday, Germany will face Spain in what is likely to be the biggest game of that day. On the next day in another big game Netherlands will take on Poland.
Defending champions Portugal will begin their campaign against FIFA World Cup 2018 finalist Croatia on September 5. France will face Sweden on the same day.
This is the second revised schedule of a UEFA competition released by the governing body after new dates for the ongoing season’s UEFA Champions League were released earlier this month.
Champions League 2019-20 is set to be completed with a ‘Final Eight’ tournament to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, in over 11 days, according to UEFA.
Under the plan, the remaining part of the Champions League – standing postponed since March due to the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – will not have the traditional two-legged encounters.
The four quarter-finals will be played on consecutive days from August 12 to `15, while the semi-finals will be played on August 18 and 19 and the final on August 23.
