In the upcoming draw taking place at 12:00 CET on Friday 22 November in Nyon, Italy will discover their quarter-final opponents in the 2024/25 UEFA Nations League. Following yesterday evening’s defeat to France, the Azzurri finished in second place in League A Group 2, meaning they’ll face one of the winners of the other three groups, namely Germany, Spain or Portugal.

The quarter-finals will take place over two legs on Thursday 20 and Sunday 23 March 2025. Having finished second, Italy will play the first leg at home and the return fixture away. The Final Four will take place in June, with the semi-finals (straight knockout ties) scheduled for 4 and 5 June and the final (plus the third-place playoff) for 8 June.

WORLD CUP DRAW. Having qualified for the Nations League quarter-finals, Italy will have top-seed status at the 2026 World Cup qualification draw, which will take place on Friday 13 December in Zurich. The 54 European teams involved will be divided into twelve groups: six groups of five teams and six groups of four. There will be some uncertainties, as the eight Nations League quarter-finalists will only know their opponents after the matches in March. If Italy progress to the Nations League Finals, they will be placed in a group of four teams and start their qualification campaign in September 2025. If they are knocked out at the quarter-final stage, Luciano Spalletti’s men will either be placed in a group of four teams and play their first qualifying matches in September 2025 (after two friendlies in June) or they will be part of a five-team group and start their World Cup qualification journey in June 2025.

The twelve group winners will directly qualify for the World Cup. The remaining four European slots will be decided via the play-offs, which will involve the twelve runners-up and the four best-ranked Nations League group winners that finished outside of the top two of their World Cup qualifying group.