Cyprus was drawn in , facing Slovenia, Norway and Bulgaria for its first campaign in the UEFA Nations League, the new tournament of national teams that offers an alternative path to the Euro 2020 finals.
Greece will only have to head north to face Hungary, Finland and Estonia in a round-robin group of games to take place next fall, from September to November.
The winner of the group will qualify to the league’s third division Final Four in June 2019, with a ticket to the Euro 2020 up for grabs. The group winner will also get promotion to the second tier, or League B of the Nations League tournament to follow, ahead of World Cup 2022.
England will face Spain and Croatia in League A of the inaugural Uefa Nations League.
Wales were drawn alongside the Republic of Ireland and Denmark in League B, while Northern Ireland were grouped with Austria and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Scotland, without a manager since Gordon Strachan left, were drawn in League C alongside Albania and Israel.
The first group games take place in September this year, with the finals scheduled for June 2019.
Wednesday’s draw took place in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Groups in full:
| League A | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Group one | Group two | Group three | Group four |
| Netherlands | Iceland | Poland | Croatia |
| France | Switzerland | Italy | England |
| Germany | Belgium | Portugal | Spain |
| League B | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Group one | Group two | Group three | Group four |
| Czech Republic | Turkey | Northern Ireland | Denmark |
| Ukraine | Sweden | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Republic of Ireland |
| Slovakia | Russia | Austria | Wales |
| League C | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Group one | Group two | Group three | Group four |
| Israel | Estonia | Cyprus | Lithuania |
| Albania | Finland | Bulgaria | Montenegro |
| Scotland | Greece | Norway | Serbia |
| Hungary | Slovenia | Romania | |
| League D | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Group one | Group two | Group three | Group four |
| Andorra | San Marino | Kosovo | Gibraltar |
| Kazakhstan | Moldova | Malta | Liechtenstein |
| Latvia | Luxembourg | Faroe Islands | Armenia |
| Georgia | Belarus | Azerbaijan | Macedonia |
Gareth Southgate’s England last faced Spain in a friendly in November 2016, which ended in a 2-2 draw. Their last competitive meeting was at Euro 1996, which hosts England won on penalties to progress to the semi-finals.
What is the Nations League?
The basic structure of the competition – that it will be played in the “empty” seasons without a European Championship or World Cup – is relatively straightforward.
The 55 European nations have been arranged into four tiers based on their ranking – the top 12, the next 12 etc – with each tier split into four leagues of three or four teams. England are in the top tier – League A. Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland are in the second tier and Scotland in the third.
The sides in each group will play home and away in a 10-week period between September and November of this year, with the team finishing top of each section being promoted to a higher tier and the nation finishing bottom dropping down one.
In a final flourish, the four nations who win the groups in the top tier will advance to a knockout finals next June to decide the Nations League winner.
Who will benefit?
The actual qualification process for Euro 2020 has been simplified, with the top two nations in the 10 groups claiming a place in the finals.
The seedings will be determined by how teams performed in the preceding Nations League and the 10 fixtures will be wedged into an eight-month window from March-November 2019.
However, that leaves four places at the finals – which will be held in 12 host cities around the continent – still to be filled.
The four group winners in each tier will then play-off in March for a first crack at claiming one of those four vacant spots.
Should a nation already have qualified, their place will go to the next highest-ranked team from their Nations League tier. However, that will not necessarily be the runners-up in their group.