Arsenal trio will face each other this week in UEFA Nations League quarter-final

There's a healthy selection of Gunners in international action this month, and several of Arsenal's stars will meet in head-to-head duels for their nations.

The March international break represents the final pause in the 2024/25 campaign before a hectic conclusion. With Arsenal still in the Champions League, April is busy. Thus, it might be wise for you to use this wee breather to unwind and recalibrate ahead of a highly stressful month.

But this is a sport that relentlessly sucks you back in. No matter the division or competition, if it's on tele, you'll give the fixture the light of day. With Thomas Tuchel starting his tenure as England manager and the first UEFA Nations League quarter-finals taking place, a complete detox is unlikely.

Three of the four quarter-finals possesses some Arsenal interest, and one sees a trio of Gunners represent both sides of the divide.

Jurrien Timber to meet Arsenal's Spanish duo in Nations League quarter-finals

These quarter-finals are two-legged affairs and will decide the four nations competing in the finals this summer. The first legs take place on Thursday, kicking-off at 19:45 (GMT), while the return legs are scheduled for Sunday at the same time.

Denmark vs Portugal is the fixture without an Arsenal representative, although loanee Nuno Tavares has been called up to the Portuguese squad amid an excellent season with Lazio.

William Saliba's France are in action against Croatia, while Riccardo Calafiori would've met Kai Havertz head-to-head hadn't the German forward suffered a season-ending hamstring injury last month. I always think back to the 2006 World Cup semi-finals when Italy and Germany collide. That tournament was my first memory of the sport which has, for better and worse, consumed me whole, and I can still picture Fabio Grosso wheeling away in celebration with the unfiltered emotion that Marco Tardelli manifested in 1982.

We're unlikely to see such scenes over these two fixtures, although Calafiori certainly has that Grosso/Tardelli streak in him.

Those bouts will be tough to overlook when deciding which is worthy of sapping two hours of your dwindling attention span, but you might fancy opting for the Arsenal-heavy Spain vs Netherlands affairs. On one side, the sturdy Jurrien Timber is poised to start in the Dutch backline, while David Raya has emerged as Spain's number one post-Euro 2024 and has once again been joined in Luis de la Fuente's squad by Mikel Merino.

If promotion/relegation is your thing, there's more Arsenal head-to-head action in the Nations League play-off between Ukraine and Belgium. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Leandro Trossard will face off over two legs to decide who'll play in Leagues A (winner) and B (loser) for the 2026/27 Nations League. These games are taking place at exactly the same time as the quarter-finals.

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