The 2024–25 UEFA Nations League A was the top division of the 2024–25 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the fourth season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. League A began with the league phase in September 2024, and culminated with the Nations League Finals in June 2025 to determine the champions of the competition.
For the first time, a quarter-final round was contested in League A by the group winners and runners-up, with the winners advancing to the Nations League Finals.
Spain were the defending champions, having won the 2023 finals.
Portugal won the final against Spain, 5–3 on penalties following a 2–2 draw after extra time, for their second UEFA Nations League title.
Format League A consisted of the 16 top-ranked UEFA members in the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League access list, split into four groups of four. Each team played six matches within their group, using the home-and-away round-robin format on double matchdays in September, October and November 2024.
On 25 January 2023, the UEFA Executive Committee approved a modified format for the Nations League after the league phase, with the following changes being implemented in League A: A new quarter-final round to be played in March 2025 was introduced, thus creating continuity between the league phase ending in November 2024 and the Nations League Finals in June 2025. The winners and runners-up of each group advanced to the quarter-finals, unlike previous editions where only the group winners advanced to the finals. The four third-placed teams of League A faced the four runners-up of League B in the relegation play-offs, which were also introduced starting this season.
The last-placed teams of each group continued to be relegated directly to League B, while the third-placed teams competed against the runners-up of League B to determine their permanence in League A for the next season or their relegation to 2026–27 UEFA Nations League B. The relegation play-offs were played home-and-away over two legs in March 2025, with the League A third-placed teams hosting the second leg.
The quarter-finals were also played home and away over two legs. In each tie, group winners faced a runner-up from a different group, with the group winner hosting the second leg. The four quarter-final winners advanced to the Finals.
The Nations League Finals retained its previous format, which was played in a knockout format in June 2025, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off, and final. The semi-final pairings were determined using an open draw. The host country was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee, preferably hosted by one of the participating teams, with the winners of the final crowned as the champions of the UEFA Nations League.
In all two-legged ties, the team that scored more goals on aggregate was the winner. If the aggregate score was level, extra time was played without the away goals rule. If the score remained level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out was used to decide the winner.
Teams The 16 League A teams included the top 12 teams from the 2022–23 League A overall ranking and four promoted teams from the 2022–23 League B.
Team changes The following were the team changes in League A from the 2022–23 season:
+ Incoming Promoted fromNations League B + Outgoing Relegated toNations League B
Bosnia and Herzegovina returned to League A, after a one-season absence, by securing first place in their 2022–23 League B group with a 1–0 victory over Montenegro on 23 September 2022. Israel, Scotland and Serbia reached the top flight of the UEFA Nations League for the first time, all three following similar paths, starting in League C in the inaugural edition and spending two seasons in League B before their promotion to League A.
Seeding In the 2024–25 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2022–23 Nations League overall ranking, considering promotion and relegation between the leagues and the results of the 2023 UEFA Nations League Finals. The seeding pots for the league phase were confirmed on 2 December 2023, and were based on the access list ranking.
+ Pot 1 Team (title holders) 1 2 3 4+ Pot 2 Team 5 6 7 8+ Pot 3 Team 9 10 11 12+ Pot 4 Team 13 14 15 16
The draw for the league phase took place at the Maison de la Mutualité in Paris, France, on 8 February 2024, 18:00 CET. Each group contained one team from each pot.
Groups The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 9 February 2024, the day following the draw.
Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Knockout stage
Bracket
Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 22 November 2024, 12:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, along with the draw for the semi-finals and promotion/relegation play-offs. In the draw, teams from the same group could not be drawn against each other. First, the group runners-up were drawn into a quarter-final pairing (1 to 4), after which group winners were drawn and allocated to the first available quarter-final (in numerical order).
Seeding The group winners were seeded in the draw, while the runners-up were unseeded. The Nations League interim overall ranking of November 2024 is shown below in brackets.
+ Quarter-final draw pots Group Winners(seeded in Pot 1) Runners-up(unseeded in Pot 2) A1 (3) (8) A2 (4) (5) A3 (2) (6) A4 (1) (7)
Summary
The first legs were played on 20 March, and the second legs were played on 23 March 2025.
Matches Times are CET (UTC+1), as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
5–5 on aggregate; Spain won 5–4 on penalties.
2–2 on aggregate; France won 5–4 on penalties.
Portugal won 5–3 on aggregate.
Germany won 5–4 on aggregate.
Nations League Finals
UEFA appointed the winner of the quarter-final tie between Italy and Germany, which Germany ultimately won, as the host for the final tournament. The semi-finals pairings were determined by means of an open draw on 22 November 2024, 12:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, along with the draw for the League A quarter-finals and promotion/relegation play-offs. For scheduling purposes, the host team was allocated to semi-final 1 as the administrative home team.
Times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA.
Semi-finals
Third place play-off
Final
Goalscorers
Overall ranking Following the league phase, the 16 League A teams were ordered 1st to 16th in an interim overall ranking for the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules: The teams finishing first in the groups were ranked 1st to 4th according to the results of the league phase. 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. The teams finishing fourth in the groups were ranked 13th to 16th according to the results of the league phase.
A final overall ranking was also compiled, though this was only used to rank teams within their new leagues for the following edition of the competition.
Notes
References
External links