European international football returns tonight. The 2026/27 UEFA Nations League league phase begins on Thursday, September 24 — the first major competition to kick off after the 2026 FIFA World Cup — and it arrives with a brand-new international calendar and a wave of blockbuster coaching debuts. Jürgen Klopp faces Xavi Hernández on opening night as Germany visit the Netherlands, while Zinédine Zidane begins his France reign and Roberto Mancini returns to Italy.
Here is everything you need to know about the new season: the headline fixtures, the eight new League A coaches, the group line-ups, and the expanded “XL” international break that has paused club football.
Opening Night: Netherlands vs Germany Headlines Matchday 1
The action gets underway on Thursday, September 24. The pick of the night is Netherlands vs Germany in League A Group A2 — the first game in charge for both new managers, Klopp and Xavi. The same group also features Serbia vs Greece, while Group A4 opens with Portugal vs Wales (the defending champions start their title defence at home) and Norway vs Denmark. Elsewhere on opening night: Austria vs Israel, Kosovo vs Republic of Ireland, Andorra vs Malta and Liechtenstein vs Lithuania (UEFA.com fixtures).
Friday’s Matchday 1 continues with two heavyweight ties in Group A1: Italy vs Belgium and Türkiye vs France. Also on September 25: Sweden vs Romania, Poland vs Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary vs Ukraine, Georgia vs Northern Ireland, Armenia vs Latvia and Montenegro vs Cyprus.
The headline game of Saturday, September 26 is England vs Spain in Group A3, alongside Czechia vs Croatia. That completes a mouth-watering first round that also includes Slovenia vs Scotland, Iceland vs Estonia, Bulgaria vs Luxembourg, Faroe Islands vs Kazakhstan, San Marino vs Finland, North Macedonia vs Switzerland, Albania vs Belarus and Slovakia vs Moldova (Vavel, Soccermag).
A Dugout Revolution: Klopp, Zidane, Xavi and Mancini
What makes this edition truly special is the scale of the coaching changes. UEFA has profiled eight new coaches taking charge of League A sides after this summer’s post-World Cup reshuffle (Punch, Sporting Life).
Jürgen Klopp — Germany. The biggest appointment of them all. Klopp takes his first national-team job after more than two decades in club management. He spent nine years at Liverpool, winning the Champions League in the 2018/19 season and the Premier League title the following campaign, after guiding Borussia Dortmund to two Bundesliga titles and the 2013 Champions League final — and earlier taking Mainz to their first-ever Bundesliga promotion in 2004. Calling the Germany job “the pinnacle, the absolutely high point of my footballing career as coach,” Klopp begins with the ultimate test: an away trip to the Netherlands. Sivonex covered Germany’s World Cup 2026 campaign earlier this summer in our Germany vs Curaçao match report.
Xavi Hernández — Netherlands. Klopp’s opening-night rival. The Barcelona and Spain legend gets his first senior international coaching job after winning the Qatari league with Al-Sadd and La Liga with Barcelona in 2022/23. As a player, Xavi won eight league titles and four Champions Leagues with Barcelona, plus Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 with Spain. His deep connection to Dutch football — through the influence of Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels — makes this appointment feel almost inevitable (Within Nigeria).
Zinédine Zidane — France. The 1998 World Cup winner, who famously guided Real Madrid to three consecutive Champions League titles, has finally taken the France job he has waited years for, succeeding Didier Deschamps. He begins with an away trip to Türkiye on September 25 — and he was photographed leading France’s training session at Clairefontaine on September 22 (Heavy.com).
Roberto Mancini — Italy. The man who led Italy to Euro 2020 glory is back for a second spell, tasked with restoring consistency to a team that failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup — their third consecutive World Cup miss. His first assignment: Italy vs Belgium on September 25 (Heavy.com).
Jorge Jesus — Portugal also begins his debut as the defending champions launch their title defence (Fútbol Mundial), while Belgium, Croatia and Czechia also start the campaign with new coaches (Punch).
The League A Groups to Watch
Sixteen nations make up the top tier, split into four groups of four (Fútbol Mundial):
- Group A1: France, Italy, Belgium, Türkiye — four heavyweights, zero easy games
- Group A2: Germany, Netherlands, Serbia, Greece — the Klopp vs Xavi rivalry begins here
- Group A3: Spain, Croatia, England, Czechia — England vs Spain is the pick
- Group A4: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Wales — Haaland’s Norway face the champions
Only the top two from each group will reach the quarter-finals in March 2027, with the semi-finals and final in June 2027. This cycle also sets the early tone for the road to Euro 2028 in the UK.
The New XL International Break
This season also debuts FIFA’s restructured international calendar. The old separate September and October windows have been merged into one 16-day window running from September 21 to October 6, in which national teams can play up to four matches instead of the usual two (beIN Sports).
The change comes from FIFA’s Men’s International Match Calendar for 2025–2030, approved by the FIFA Council in March 2023. The total number of games does not increase — teams previously played up to four games across two nine-day windows — but players now leave their clubs once for a longer spell rather than twice in successive months. The aim is to reduce international breaks from three to two per season (Flashscore).
That is why the league phase is so compressed: Matchdays 1–4 are all played within this window (September 24 to October 6), with Matchdays 5 and 6 to follow in November before the league phase concludes on November 17 (UEFA.com). European domestic football — the Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 — pauses for the entire break.
Conclusion
The 2026/27 UEFA Nations League could hardly ask for a better launch. A post-World Cup reset, eight new coaches in League A, a classic rivalry to open the show, and a new calendar that crams four matchdays into sixteen days. Klopp’s Germany against Xavi’s Netherlands tonight is the headline — but with Zidane, Mancini and the defending champions Portugal all in action too, this is one international break that promises to be anything but dull.
