Croatia, the Netherlands, and Italy will play the final phase, scheduled for June 2023, together with the Spanish National Team. The Netherlands will be the host country.
The fight for the trophy becomes fiercer than ever. Spain, Croatia, Italy, and the Netherlands are already in the last round, which will be played next year.
The national team qualified after beating Portugal (0-1) in Braga on the last day. La Roja, together with Italy, repeated participation consecutively. In the case of Croatia, the situation has been very similar. The Balkan squad qualified in the last game after beating Denmark, which was second in their group, and agreed by a single point.
In the case of Italy, the situation is not very different. Like Croatia, the Alpine side could not confirm their qualification until the sixth match, when they beat England narrowly, invalidating Hungary's surprise win against Germany. Meanwhile, the Netherlands, which will host this Final Four, got into it comfortably, with a six-point advantage over second-place Belgium.
The squads qualified to play the title matches are the following: Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Croatia. After staying out of the World Cup, the transalpine team is a big favorite. The team coached by Mancini had a tremendous undefeated streak and wants to put the disappointments of recent months behind them. In this way, it would confirm its status in European football.
The final four matches will occur from June 14 to 18, 2023. This format has two semifinals, a game for third and fourth place, and the grand final, which will decide the champion of the current edition of the Nations League.
The chosen location, in the absence of UEFA confirming it in its Executive Committee, will be the Netherlands. After qualifying as first in their group, the Van Gaal team will host one of the most sought-after competitions on the Old Continent.
In this case, as there are several meetings, up to two venues will be needed.
The first points to Amsterdam, where the Dutch team plays its matches, and the second could be between the cities of Rotterdam or Eindhoven.
In this way, the country will again organize a national team tournament after the 2000 European Championship jointly with Belgium.
Another point that must be taken into account is that the performance in the final phase will significantly influence the way to the next major competitions at the national team level. One of the clearest examples is the World Cup in 2026.
In this case, the champion team of the Nations League will have a privilege in the qualifying phase for the 2026 World Cup.
As usual, whoever wins will have a group of five teams instead of six.
The ten teams that will play this last chance to enter the World Cup will be joined by two squads that have performed well in the Nations League.
Meanwhile, for the European Championship to be held in 2024, UEFA, the organizer of the championships, has foreseen the situation.
The winners of Leagues A, B, and C pool, but if they have already qualified, they will be replaced by the next highest ranked team from their League.
If there are not enough non-classified teams in the same League, they move on to the next League, ending with League D", the organization has announced.
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