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The Swiss national team will play in the group phase of the 2024/25 Nations League against defending champions Spain, Denmark and Serbia.
The groups for the 2024/25 Nations League campaign were drawn at the UEFA Congress in Paris on Thursday evening. Switzerland meets an old friend in Spain. The Iberians were opponents of Murat Yakin and his team at the last two events.
The Swiss have never played against Denmark and Serbia in the Nations League. However, the national team met the Serbs at the last two World Cup finals.
The League A groups at a glance:
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Croatia Italy Netherlands Spain Portugal Belgium Hungary Denmark Poland France Germany
Switzerland
Scotland Israel Bosnia-Herzegovina Serbia
Always Spain and Serbia
Not only are the Spaniards well-known to Switzerland as opponents, the national team has also played against the Serbs twice in recent years. Serbia was the group opponent of the Swiss at both the 2018 World Cup (2:1) and the 2022 World Cup (3:2). Due to the Kosovar roots of Captain Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri, the duels were always particularly charged.
Switzerland last met Denmark in 2019 in the European Championship qualification (3:3 and 0:1). On March 23rd, the Yakin team will play their first international match of the year in Copenhagen against the Danes.
“An attractive group that includes various footballing elements,” said Yakin, commenting on the draw. “Denmark is a very strong team, and we already know Spain and Serbia from the recent past.”
Winning the group is no longer necessary to advance
The group games take place between the beginning of September and mid-November. The final tournament will take place in June 2025. The Nations League will take place for the fourth time in 2024/25. At the premiere in 2018/19, Switzerland reached the final tournament for the only time so far in the competition, which was created instead of friendly games, and finished in fourth place. Since then, the national team has remained in the highest of the four league levels.
In order to make it to the final tournament for the second time since 2019, Switzerland no longer needs to win the group. The four first-place teams in League A will now play a playoff with a return leg (quarter-finals) against a runner-up team. Once again, four of the 16 European starting places for the 2026 World Cup will be awarded via the Nations League.