World champions Germany will face France and the Netherlands while England were on Wednesday drawn with Spain and Croatia in the new UEFA Nations League designed to replace friendlies.

Italy will seek to restore pride after their failure to reach this year's World Cup when they take on Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal and Poland, while Wales will play Denmark and the Republic of Ireland.

UEFA have devised the format to counter criticism of meaningless international friendlies.

The top-ranked teams, such as Germany, are in League A and the lowest in League D.

The final League A group is comprised of Belgium, Switzerland and Iceland.

The matches will begin in September this year, with a 'final four' of the winners of the four League A groups held on June 5-9, 2019 to determine the winner.

The competition will initially be contested across 16 groups and gives a chance to the four top-ranked teams that have not qualified for the European Championship to have another chance.

They will go into a playoff round between themselves, with one spot guaranteed for each league.