Nations League Quarter-Finals Preview
As the domestic leagues take a break, the Nations League is back in action, we’ve taken a closer look at some of the biggest games in the upcoming week!
The International break in March is the first opportunity for us to enjoy some Nations League fixtures in 2025 with a number of playoff matches taking place over the upcoming days. There are relegation matches which will dictate who drops down a division as follows:
Armenia vs Georgia
Türkiye vs Hungary
Austria vs Serbia
Bulgaria vs Ireland
Greece vs Scotland
Kosovo vs Iceland
Slovakia vs Slovenia
Ukraine vs Belgium
Our focus will be on the League A playoffs though, with the top teams in the Nations League taking each other on in home and away ties over the next week. There are certainly some interesting match ups as Croatia face the might of France, Denmark face a tough task when they take on Portugal and there are two clashes between giants of the European game as Italy play against Germany and the Netherlands are up against Spain. The winners of the first two fixtures will take each other on and the same goes for matches 3 and 4 with the winners of those ties playing in the prestigious final, which is set to be on the 8th of June.
Let’s take a closer look at two of these big games!
Italy vs Germany
San Siro, Thurs @ 20:45
Despite only finishing second in their group to France, the newly revamped Nations League format means that Italy still have a chance of progressing as one of the unseeded teams, taking on seeded Germany. The home side are searching for their third successive finals appearance in the Nations League and they will have home advantage for the first leg. However, their record against Germany is a poor one, they have not won any of the six meetings between these two giants of European football, including meetings in previous editions of the tournament. The home defeat at the hands of France in November indicates that they don’t really have reason to be overly confident despite their home advantage.
Germany have only lost once since the start of 2024, their defeat to Spain in last year’s big tournament. Ten of those matches have been wins and they made easy work of winning Group 3, therefore progressing into the knockout stages of the Nations League for the first time. They have managed some big wins along the way, including a 5-0 win over Hungary and a 7-0 win over Bosnia & Herzegovina. The biggest worry for Germany coach Nagelsmann is the amount of key players who are missing this match due to various injuries, with Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz amongst the individuals missing.
The last time these two met resulted in a comprehensive 5-2 win for Germany and they have three wins out of the last ten meetings. Italy also has three wins in that same timeframe.
Netherlands vs Spain
De Kuip Stadium, Thurs @ 20:45
This is arguably the top match of the day as defending champions Spain head to Rotterdam to take on the Netherlands. The home side will be desperate to establish an advantage that they can take with them to Spain for the second leg but will need to be careful not to concede. The Dutch will be hoping to go one step further than the runners up medal that they collected in 2019 and they qualified for the knockout rounds after finishing in second spot behind Germany in group A3. Defensively they were far from solid in the group stages, conceding seven goals in the six matches played and they will need to do better against the impressive Spanish attack. They have only lost once to Spain since the year 2000, a record they will be aiming to continue.
Spain are arguably the most in-form nation in world football, they have only lost one of their last 25 matches, winning 22 of those. Included in that run is their maiden Nations League triumph in 2023 as well as their 2024 success when they beat England in the final. This impressive run has seen them rise up to number 3 in the world rankings and are gunning for Argentina’s place as number one. Winning the Nations League again would certainly help in that ambition and few would bet against them doing so. A positive result in this first leg would go a long way to ensuring their progress to the next round and they will be optimistic of at least scoring.
The last meeting between these two was in 2020 and that ended as a 1-1 draw. They have met nine times in total with the Netherlands winning five of those matches and Spain winning three.
Last Updated: 18.03.2025
