Paris (AFP) – England, Italy and Germany were placed in the same group in the draw for the next edition of the UEFA Nations League on Thursday.
Hungary will complete Group A3, the pick of the groups for the competition which will be played between June next year and June 2023.
The draw means England will renew acquaintances with two sides who they faced at this year’s European Championship — Gareth Southgate’s team defeated Germany 2-0 at Wembley in the last 16 before losing to Italy on penalties in the final.
England also played Hungary twice in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup earlier this year, winning 4-0 in Budapest and drawing 1-1 at home.
France won the last edition of the Nations League, beating Spain 2-1 in the final in Milan in October.
The reigning world champions were drawn to face Denmark, Croatia and Austria in Group A1.
Portugal, who were victorious as hosts in the inaugural Nations League finals in 2019, will come up against Spain, Switzerland and the Czech Republic in Group A2.
Belgium, who are the top-ranked team in the world, will play neighbours the Netherlands, Poland and Wales in Group A4.
The Nations League, introduced to replace meaningless friendly matches with more competitive games, splits all of Europe’s 55 member nations into four leagues.
Each league contains four groups of four teams except for the bottom League D, which has seven teams in total and just two groups.
The tournament will be played either side of next year’s World Cup, with group matches from June to September and then the four-team finals — featuring the winners of the four groups in League A — in June 2023.
