France, Belgium and Vincenzo Montella’s Turkey will be Italy’s opponents in Group 1 of League A in the 2026/27 UEFA Nations League. This was the outcome of the draw held at Brussels Expo Hall 3, venue for the 50th UEFA Ordinary Congress, in the presence of FIGC president Gabriele Gravina and Leonardo Bonucci, assistant with the national team under head coach Gennaro Gattuso.

The Azzurri—who on March 26 will face Northern Ireland in Bergamo in the World Cup play-off semi-final—will once again come up against two teams they already faced in the previous edition of the competition: France and Belgium. Against Les Bleus, Italy won 3–1 in the opener at the Parc des Princes, before losing 3–1 in the final group match in Milan, allowing Mbappé and his teammates to overtake them at the top of the group. Against the Red Devils, the record stands at one win and one draw: Italy won 1–0 in Brussels (with a goal from Tonali), but Belgium managed to come back from two goals down in the match played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, which ended 2–2.

Leonardo Bonucci spoke about the draw: “It’s a difficult group, we’ll be facing three of the best teams in the world who have bags of talent. They’ll be hugely exciting games and will be played at packed out stadiums. The objective is to go as far as possible in the competition”. 

The top two teams will qualify for the quarter-finals, the fourth-placed side will be relegated to League B, while the third-placed team will play a relegation play-off to remain in League A against one of the runners-up from League B. The group stage will begin at the end of September 2026 and conclude the following November. The quarter-finals and play-offs are scheduled for March 2027, while the final phase of the tournament will take place in June 2027.
 

ITALY IN THE NATIONS LEAGUE. Having reached the final phase of the competition in the 2020/21 and 2022/23 editions, Italy has finished third twice in the first four editions of the UEFA Nations League. After finishing second in the group stage in the inaugural edition—thus missing out on qualification for the Final Four, later won by Portugal—the Azzurri reached the final phase of the tournament in 2021, which they hosted in Milan and Turin. With the 2–1 defeat at the Meazza in the semi-final against Spain, Roberto Mancini’s side saw their run of 37 unbeaten matches come to an end, a loss they quickly made up for in Turin by winning the third-place match 2–1 against Belgium. A similar script unfolded a year later, with Italy once again beaten by La Roja in the semi-final and then victorious in the third-place match against hosts the Netherlands. The main innovation of the fourth edition—also confirmed for the tournament starting next September—was the introduction of the quarter-finals, an additional round reserved for the top two teams from each of the four groups. Finishing second in Group 2 behind France, Italy were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Germany: a 2–1 defeat in Milan and a comeback draw (from 3–0 to 3–3) in Dortmund, where Moise Kean’s brace and a stoppage-time penalty from Giacomo Raspadori were not enough to secure qualification for the final phase.

LEAGUE A GROUPS

GROUP A1: France, ITALY, Belgium, Türkiye

GROUP A2: Germany, The Netherlands, Serbia, Greece

GROUP A3: Spain, Croatia, England, Cechia

GROUP A4: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Wales


THE NATIONS LEAGUE 2026/27 SCHEDULE

Matchday 1: 24-26 September 2026
Matchday 2: 27-29 September 2026
Matchday 3: 30 September-3 October 2026
Matchday 4: 4-6 October 2026
Matchday 5: 12-14 November 2026
Matchday 6: 15-17 November 2026
Quarter-finals: 25-30 March 2027
Play-off League A/League B: 25-30 March 2027
Final phase: 9-13 June 2027