[Nations League] League A Matchday 2 — Starting XI Average Age Ranking for All 16 Nations: The Younger Side Won All Eight Games

The first Nations League campaign of the post-World Cup cycle reached matchday 2 of League A between 27 and 29 September. For this piece we took only the eleven players each nation sent out at kick-off and compared their average age. Substitutes are left out: the starting teamsheet is the clearest statement of how far a coach is willing to trust youth.

The big picture first. Across 16 nations and 176 starters the average is 26.10. Wales are the oldest at 28.45, France the youngest at 24.55 — a gap of roughly four years. Put the numbers next to the results and a pattern jumps out: in all eight matches, the team with the younger starting XI won. There were no draws.

The Younger XI Won All Eight Games

Match by match it is stark. Denmark (26.18) beat Wales (28.45) 2-0; Spain (24.82) beat Croatia (28.18) 4-1; the Netherlands (26.64) won 2-1 in Serbia (27.64); Portugal (26.18) won 2-1 in Norway (27.36); France (24.55) won 1-0 in Belgium (25.91); Italy (24.64) won 4-1 in Türkiye (25.64); Greece (25.45) won 1-0 in Germany (25.64); and England (25.00) won 2-0 in Czechia (25.27). The four oldest sides in the table all lost; the four youngest all won.

It would be a stretch to read this as “younger teams are better”. Run the same numbers on matchday 1 and the result almost flips: of the seven games with a winner, the older XI won six (Norway 3-2 Denmark, Portugal 1-0 Wales, Belgium 2-0 Italy, France 1-0 Türkiye, Croatia 2-1 Czechia, Spain 3-2 England; only Greece's 2-1 win in Serbia went to the younger side). What matchday 2 really measures is who each coach rested and who he chose to test with two or three days between games.

France, the Youngest, Kept Only Two Starters From Matchday 1

France (24.55) changed nine of the eleven who started against Türkiye in Zinedine Zidane's first game. Only goalkeeper Mike Maignan and centre-back Maxence Lacroix kept their places. Désiré Doué, Bradley Barcola, Eduardo Camavinga and Maghnes Akliouche came in alongside 21-year-old defender Jérémy Jacquet, Pierre Kalulu and Como's Lucas Da Cunha, and the average fell 2.18 years from 26.73. Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise, Jules Koundé and Dayot Upamecano started on the bench — and France still won 1-0 in Brussels.

Italy (24.64, 15th) changed eight. Their oldest starter was 27-year-old goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma — not a single player in his thirties — and they won 4-1 in Bursa with brothers Pio (21) and Sebastiano Esposito together in attack. Spain (24.82, 14th) started 19-year-olds Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí plus 21-year-old Dean Huijsen, and swept Croatia aside 4-1.

Change in starting XI average age, matchday 1 → matchday 2

Team	MD1	MD2	Change	Kept
Portugal	28.64	26.18	-2.45	7
France	26.73	24.55	-2.18	2
Germany	27.09	25.64	-1.45	6
Spain	26.18	24.82	-1.36	6
Italy	25.73	24.64	-1.09	3
Türkiye	26.55	25.64	-0.91	7
Belgium	26.55	25.91	-0.64	9
Serbia	27.91	27.64	-0.27	4
Czechia	25.45	25.27	-0.18	8
Norway	27.45	27.36	-0.09	10
Netherlands	26.55	26.64	+0.09	9
Greece	25.18	25.45	+0.27	9
England	24.55	25.00	+0.45	7
Denmark	25.73	26.18	+0.45	10
Croatia	27.36	28.18	+0.82	5
Wales	27.18	28.45	+1.27	5

The biggest drop belonged to Portugal (-2.45). Their 28.64 against Wales on matchday 1 was the oldest XI in League A, but new coach Jorge Jesus brought in João Palhinha, João Neves, Francisco Conceição and Gonçalo Ramos for the trip to Oslo and won 2-1. Neves turned 22 on the day of the match. The biggest rise was Wales (+1.27): they made six changes, but brought experience in — 34-year-old Kieffer Moore among them — became the oldest side in League A, and lost 2-0 in Copenhagen.

The Oldest: Wales and Croatia

Wales (28.45) had 23-year-old Charlie Savage as their youngest starter — the only one aged 24 or under — and four players aged 30 or over: Moore (34), goalkeeper Danny Ward, Ben Davies and Connor Roberts. Croatia (28.18) started 37-year-old Ivan Perišić, with Mateo Kovačić, Josip Mišić and Dominik Livaković also in their thirties. Luka Modrić and Andrej Kramarić began on the bench and the average was still above 28. Spain's young front line ran them ragged in a 4-1 defeat.

Oldest Starter: Perišić, 37. Youngest: Karetsas, 18

Oldest starters (the six aged 34 or over)

Player	Age	Pos	Nation
Ivan Perišić	37y 239d	FW	Croatia
Ørjan Nyland	36y 17d	GK	Norway
Kevin De Bruyne	35y 92d	MF	Belgium
Virgil van Dijk	35y 81d	DF	Netherlands
Nemanja Gudelj	34y 315d	MF	Serbia
Kieffer Moore	34y 50d	FW	Wales

Youngest starters (seven youngest)

Player	Age	Pos	Nation
Konstantinos Karetsas	18y 312d	MF	Greece
Lamine Yamal	19y 78d	FW	Spain
Pau Cubarsí	19y 250d	DF	Spain
Myles Lewis-Skelly	20y 3d	MF	England
Kosta Nedeljković	20y 285d	DF	Serbia
Can Uzun	20y 321d	FW	Türkiye
Aleksandar Stanković	21y 55d	MF	Serbia

More than 18 years separate Perišić from Greece's Konstantinos Karetsas — and Karetsas was in the Greek eleven that won 1-0 against Germany in Augsburg. England's Myles Lewis-Skelly turned 20 on 26 September and started in Prague three days later. Serbia started 20-year-old Kosta Nedeljković and 21-year-old Aleksandar Stanković, but paired them with veterans such as 34-year-old Nemanja Gudelj, so their average still came out at 27.64, third-oldest in the table.

Of the 176 starters, 30 were aged 30 or over and 24 were 22 or under. Matchday 3 follows on 2-4 October — watch how far each coach rotates again.

Ages are as of the local match date. Averages are the simple mean of the starting eleven's ages in whole years — the same calculation as the average age shown under the pitch on Fomelabo. Starting line-ups are taken from ESPN's official teamsheets. Tap a team name to rearrange that nation's formation.