Nations League draw live – Scotland to learn playoff fate plus QF ties

A startlingly bold call from Johan picks out Euro 2024 winners Spain as ones to watch, with Lamine Yamal in particular a player he enjoys.

Roberto Martinez, Didier Deschamps, Ronald Koeman and more look on in rapt wonder.

Here comes the video explanation of everything we’ve just told you below, so the draw itself should be along shortly.

We’re welcoming on stage special guest Johan Djourou, apparently, to do the draw. The Swiss defender formerly played for Arsenal of course, as well as Birmingham, Hamburg and plenty of others.

He “really love[s] the format because it gives all the teams the chance to compete”.

OK we’re underway, of sorts. Giorgio Marchetti, the man who loves a draw perhaps more than anybody else on planet Earth, is on the stage. For the uninitiated, he’s the deputy general secretary of Uefa.

He assures us we’re close to starting the draw, but starts with the usual compliments, explanations and general speaking.

A “special recognition” for San Marino, who sealed a first-ever Uefa competition win and promotion from League D.

One of the keen onlookers to the draw will of course be Steve Clarke – his Scotland side secured third place with a fantastic late winner by Andy Robertson against Poland this week. If they come through the playoffs victorious too, it means League A next time around will contain each of the Scots, England and Wales – the latter two topping their respective League B groups this time to go straight up.

Republic of Ireland’s wins over Finland mean they are hoping to stay in League B by way of the playoffs too, while Northern Ireland won C3 to earn promotion to that tier too. Positives all around, or potential ones.

Top scorers from the Nations League this time:

• Gyokeres (Sweden) 9
• Haaland (Norway) 7
• Marin (Romania) 6
• Ronaldo (Portugal) 5
• Sesko (Slovenia) 5

A couple there still involved in the games to come, though Sweden – who were in League C this time around – earned comfortable promotion. Gyokeres helping himself to a bagful against Slovakia, Estonia and Azerbaijan.

So here are all the teams involved in the upcoming playoff draw, with naturally a third place playing a runner-up in each case.

A/B: Scotland, Belgium, Hungary, Serbia; Ukraine, Greece, Austria, Turkey

B/C: Georgia, Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland; Slovakia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Armenia

C/D: Luxembourg, Latvia; Gibraltar, Malta

The finals are just one half of today’s festivities, though. We now – in addition to direct promotion and relegation for the top and bottom team of groups – have a playoff for a second potential spot each way.

Very simply, teams finishing third in Leagues A, B and C will face those finishing second from B, C or D and the winner stays or goes up accordingly.

A/B and B/C playoffs are on 20 and 23 March, C/D playoffs will be for a fairly obscure World Cup qualification reason held a year later, 26 and 31 March 2026. And might not be held at all, but we’ll worry about that at the time.

The finals previously were just semis and final; as mentioned, this year has expanded. So:

Quarter-finals are played over two legs, 20 March and 23 March 2025.

Then it’s onto the semis, a one-off game on 4 or 5 June, with the final – and a third-place playoff for extra irrelevance – taking place on 8 June 2025.

Impressive mileage from a competition few people seem to be all that bothered about, you might say. Still, it’s probably better than friendlies.

Let’s break this down then: playoffs to come, but first the ‘finals’ to sort out.

We have eight quarter-finalists, which are four seeded – the winners from League A groups – and four unseeded nations – the runners-up, naturally.

Each runner-up will be drawn against a winner, but not the one from the Nations League group they already played in. So, Portugal topped A1 ahead of Croatia, for example, so they won’t face each other again now.

Pot 1 (winners): Portugal, France, Germany, Spain

Pot 2 (r/ups): Croatia, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark

The Uefa Nations League has undergone changes this season, with the addition of quarter-finals to the knockout stage as well as promotion/relegation play-offs at the conclusion of the first phase.

That, incredibly, includes Scotland , who rescued themselves from automatic relegation with back-to-back wins over Croatia and Poland to end the campaign in third place of Group A1. Andy Robertson’s dramatic winner in Warsaw means Steve Clarke’s side will play one of the runners-up from League B over a two-legged play-off in March, in a bid to preserve their top-tier status.

Meanwhile, Spain are the defending Nations League champions and will be out to retain their crown against the likes of France, Portugal, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in the Nations League finals.

The draw takes place today and here’s everything you need to know.