What is the Nations League? Uefa competition explained, how it affects Euros qualification and groups in full

England have made a slow start to their Nations League campaign with lacklustre performances against Hungary and Germany.

A Dominik Szoboszlai penalty ended Hungary‘s 60-year winless streak against the Three Lions, and another loss was on the cards when Germany’s Jonas Hofmann opened the scoring in the next fixture.

However, Harry Kane netted a penalty in the 88^th minute to reach 50 international goals – three shy of Wayne Rooney – as England seek to build moment ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

The Nations League is now in its third edition after launching in 2018, but it can still be tricky to understand exactly how it works – here’s everything you need to know.

How does the Nations League work?

All 55 Uefa member associations are divided into four leagues depending on their ranking coefficient.

Leagues A, B and C have 16 teams each, separated into four groups of four teams.

That leaves seven teams in League D, which is split into two groups – one with four teams and the other with three.

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Each nation plays their group opponents home and away in June and September 2022.

The group winners in League A advance to the knockout stage in June 2023, while the group winners in the other leagues will be promoted for the 2024-25 season.

Those who finish fourth in League A and B groups will be relegated. The teams who finish fourth in the League C groups will enter the relegation play-outs in March 2024. The two nations defeated in those ties will move down to League D.

Who is in England’s group?

Next up, England face Euro 2020 champions Italy at Wembley on Saturday 11 June, following the fixtures with Hungary and Germany, which put Gareth Southgate’s side bottom of Group Three with one point.

A point seperates each position with Germany in third, Hungary second and Italy in first.

In his post-match interview after the Germany clash, Southgate took away some positives such as England’s late rally to equalise but acknowledged that they were a “little bit sloppy” .

Does the Nations League affect qualification for the World Cup or Euros?

Three of the 24 places at Euro 2024 will be attained through the 2022-23 Nations League.

The 12 highest-placed teams in the Nations League, who do not qualify for the Euros through its own qualifying process will enter a play-off process.

This will comprise of a semi-finals and finals stage, with the winner of each mini competition winning a place at the Germany championships.

The Nations League has no impact on qualification for the World Cup.

2022-23 leagues and groups

League A

Group A1: France, Denmark, Croatia, Austria
Group A2: Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Czech Republic
Group A3: Italy, Germany, England, Hungary
Group A4: Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Wales

League B

Group B1: Ukraine, Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Armenia
Group B2: Iceland, Russia*, Israel, Albania
Group B3: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Romania, Montenegro
Group B4: Sweden, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia

League C

Group C1: Turkey, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Faroe Islands
Group C2: Northern Ireland, Greece, Kosovo, Cyprus
Group C3: Slovakia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan
Group C4: Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Georgia, Gibraltar

League D

Group D1: Liechtenstein, Moldova, Andorra, Latvia
Group D2: Malta, Estonia, San Marino

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