Your guide to Manchester United’s international break

We’re already at the first international break of the season, with 14 United players in action over the next week. The big news — or perhaps ‘big’ news — is that this break marks the start of the inaugural UEFA Nations League, which is designed to replace friendly matches with slightly-less-friendly matches between similarly-ranked sides, culminating in a finals tournament next June. It also has some small ramifications on European Championships qualifying, which you can read about over here.

David de Gea (Spain); Victor Lindelöf (Sweden); Luke Shaw, Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford (England); Paul Pogba (France); Marouane Fellaini and Romelu Lukaku (Belgium); Nemanja Matić (Serbia); and Scott McTominay (Scotland) will all play at least one Nations League match over the next week, with some of them playing two. A full list of fixtures can be found below.

Outside of Europe, there isn’t a great deal going on. The only other competitive fixture — perhaps the only proper competitive fixture in the entire break — sees Eric Bailly’s Ivory Coast going up against Rwanda in a qualifying game for the Africa Cup of Nations. Brazil (Fred, Andreas Pereira) and Argentina (Sergio Romero) both have friendly matches, with the Belgian-born Pereira still awaiting his full international debut for the Seleçao.

Full fixtures (times BST)

Thursday 6 September

Germany vs. France 19:45 (Nations League)
Austria vs. Sweden 19:45 (friendly)

Friday 7 September

Lithuania vs. Serbia 19:45 (Nations League)
Scotland vs. Belgium 19:45 (friendly)

Saturday 8 September

USA vs. Brazil 00:30 (friendly)
Argentina vs. Guatemala 04:00 (friendly)
England vs. Spain 19:45 (Nations League)

Sunday 9 September

Rwanda vs. Ivory Coast 14:30 (Africa Cup of Nations qualifier)
France vs. Netherlands 19:45 (Nations League)

Monday 10 September

Scotland vs. Albania 19:45 (Nations League
Serbia vs. Romania 19:45 (Nations League)
Sweden vs. Turkey 19:45 (Nations League)

Tuesday 11 September

Iceland vs. Belgium 19:45 (Nations League)
Spain vs. Croatia 19:45 (Nations League)
England vs. Switzerland 20:00 (friendly)

Wednesday 12 September

Colombia vs. Argentina 01:00 (friendly)
Brazil vs. El Salvador 01:30 (friendly