We're headed for a top seed in the inaugural edition of the Nations League's premier tier ... with the results from remaining EURO 2016 qualifiers and final tournament + 2018 World Cup qualifiers still pending: Nations League A (group winners advance to Final 4 and 3rd placed teams are relegated to 2020/21 Nations League B) Top seeds: Germany, Belgium, England and France Pot 2: Holland, Spain, Portugal and Croatia Pot 3: Austria, Romania, Slovakia and Italy Based on: - 20% WC2014 Qs and final event - 40% EURO2016 Qs and final event - 40% WC2018 Qs
Update (results from EURO2016 and WC2018 Qs still pending) Nations League A (group winners advance to Final 4 and 3rd placed teams are relegated to 2020/21 Nations League B) Top seeds: England, Germany, Spain and Belgium Pot 2: Portugal, Austria, France and Italy Pot 3: Switzerland, Russia, Croatia and Ukraine
We're now heading down the home stretch ... only the results from World Cup 2018 Qs still pending Nations League A (group winners advance to Final 4 and 3rd placed teams are relegated to 2020/21 NL B) Top seeds: Germany, Portugal, France and Belgium Pot 2: England, Spain, Italy and Switzerland Pot 3: Austria, Croatia, Poland and Wales Iceland (18.174) and Holland (18.085) not that far behind Wales (18.328) Format ... table & standings ... the race is on.
Nations League is going to be cut-throat ... the top sides facing each other straightaway in qualifiers for Final 4 ... e.g. GoD of Germany, Spain and Croatia (tough yet mouth-watering Qs) ... with 1 of these teams being relegated and only 1 qualifying for the Final 4 tournament. Germany could drop down a league for the subsequent Nations League and no longer be a top seed for the European Qs (overall UEFA Nations League rankings will determine the composition of the draw pots) This could be at stake: - Final 4 (inaugural Nations League Championship in June 2019) or promotion to a higher league - relegation to a lower league (1 in 3 chance of being relegated while facing top sides) - 4 EURO berths after play-offs (maybe WC as well) - top seed status in European Qs (or ending up in a lower pot ... EURO2020 could already have very uneven Qs) Looks like UEFA aims to make this a major tournament ... EURO2016 was awful while the Nations League seems very attractive ... every summer there will be a chance to win silverware.
Oh yea, Belgium are guaranteed a spot in the Nations League's top tier ... only the results from next month's WCQs are missing ... a win in Brussels against Cyprus is enough for us to claim top seed status ... avoiding the likes of Germany and Spain in a tournament where 1 out of 3 top sides will be relegated is very valuable (due to the FRA-LUX draw France could very well end up in pot 3 and Poland to move up to pot 2). Spain, England and Switzerland are the only ones that could overtake us (if two of them do we'll drop to pot 2). Top seeds: Germany, Portugal, Belgium and Spain Pot 2: England, Switzerland, Italy and France Pot 3: Poland, Croatia, Iceland and Wales Except Iceland (90%) and Wales (47%), all are pretty much nailed on ... next month is the last chance for the likes of Holland (24%), Slovakia (15%), etc. If France end up in pot 3 a possible GoD for us would be: Belgium, Italy and France ... I'd rather play Holland than Wales in the Nations League (and have France as a top seed in Russia2018 instead of Wales) ... #hup #holland ... a group with Belgium, France and Holland, please, for minimum travel and maximum banter.
The probabilities (%) for the top seeds in League A Germany - 100 Portugal 99,4 Belgium - 94,8 Spain - 78,8 France - 22,0 England - 4,4 Switzerland - 0,4 Italy - 0,2
UEFA Nations League format confirmed http://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleague/news/newsid=2501767.html#/ More info http://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleague/news/newsid=2079553.html#/ The League Phase Draw for the UEFA Nations League will take place on 24 January 2018.
UEFA has confirmed the composition of the four leagues for the UEFA Nations League 2018-19 - uefa.com League A: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_UEFA_Nations_League_A Ending up in the play-offs is complicated: - https://uefa.app.box.com/v/UNL/file/226762295443 - http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles.../Regulations/02/50/54/37/2505437_DOWNLOAD.pdf
Instead of Iceland wouldn't you rather draw Croatia from pot 3? ... mainly because you can expect more attractive, open games (we'll still be confronted with packed defences and labored wins in the regular ECQs) ... but Croatia also have seen better times ... it's not only the results, off the pitch as well things aren't running smoothly and their best players are ageing (lots of exciting talents to be bedded into the team though). Iceland, OTOH, might take this competition more seriously (while Holland might raise their game in the derbies). For me, either Croatia or Holland is fine. From pot 2 France are the biggest scalp ... it's still rare to face the top sides in competitive ties ... besides our H2H favours Belgium. "Lads, it's (golden) spurs."
... and FIFA are planning a World League now: https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/10/2...ing-international-friendlies-new-world-league
UEFA Nations League draw: Wed. 24 around 12CET (they'll start with League D first). Draw procedure: reverse order, pot 1 teams drawn last, with teams assigned to groups in ascending order from A1 to A4. 🌍 UEFA #NationsLeague draw 💪🗓️ Weds 24 Jan⏰ 12.00 CET📺 https://t.co/Y4kHmBPiKI 🇨🇭 Lausanne pic.twitter.com/rJ7bSrmUfh— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) January 18, 2018
I would have prefered more attack-minded opponents, like Croatia, or sides that we struggle to arrange a friendly with. France + Holland would also have been fun though. We faced both Switzerland and Iceland not that long ago but we should be happy as the NL is already very cut-throat. I'm betting Iceland will try to avoid relegation at all cost and the Swiss did win 9 out of their 10 WCQs. Luckily none of the teams in our group have the advantage of resting their players during the World Cup as everyone has qualified for Russia. I'd like to see our guys take the NL seriously but I'm not confident they will. Maybe Martinez returns to the club game and we'll get a new manager after Russia. In that case players might want to show themselves (combined with a smooth transition to a new manager that wouldn't be so bad). We'll have to replace a couple of players anyway and it's a positive that the ones that need to be bedded into the squad aren't thrown to the lions.
The fixture list is quite kind to us. We could either play a friendly first (a nice bonus if a new manager takes over from Martinez after Russia) or rest our players. Every team in this group is going to Russia. So it won't only be our players that could be drained after a summer with little time to recharge ahead of the new season. We also have more depth than Switzerland and especially Iceland. Iceland will have to face the Swiss in an away game first and us three days later. Iceland's first tie might be hard-fought and their players could be exhausted. It's also better to play in Iceland during the summer. Then the Swiss have two away games. It would have been better if we faced them in the second tie but we'll probably pencil in a friendly and tend to perform better in the first game of a doubleheader. Possibly Switzerland and Iceland will take points off each other. Ideally we win our first two NL games while the others have two points each before going into the final stretch (we'd already be qualified regardless of what happens in November). In our last two games we have, on paper, the easiest tie, at home v. Iceland, and the hardest, away v. Switzerland. Even if we have dropped points before November it isn't unlikely we'll still be alive. Hopefully an ultra-defensive snoozefest doesn't help our opponents at this point and they'll have to take risks. From Iceland I'm always expecting a cagey game though. Just in case tie-breakers come into play.
Winner of the group with Portugal, Italy and Poland to host the Final Four main event. - semis on 5 & 6 June 2019 (pairings to be drawn in early December 2018; probably together with the regular ECQ 2020 draw) - final (+ 3rd place play-off) on 9 June 2019 https://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleague/news/newsid=2543176.html#/
7 Sep. ... friendly v. Scotland (away) 11 Sep. ... first NL game v. Iceland (away) 12 Oct. ... second NL game v. Switzerland (home) 16 Oct. ... friendly v. Holland http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/voetbal/Rode_Duivels/1.3162662
Behrami, Lichtsteiner, Djourou and Fernandes are about to be kicked from the Swiss NT. Mainly because the Swiss manager wants to rejuvenate but it also sounds like there was a rift in the team due to the Albanian eagle salute (at Russia2018). The new guys seem ready-made and if for example Mbabu gets in he could be a handful. I was a bit surprised that quite a few Swiss players, like Mbabu and Zakaria, have Congolese roots. Still almost all their promising talents are eligible for other countries (mainly Balkan countries or other African countries than Congo though). Seeing French is an official languague in Switzerland I probably shouldn't have been surprised at all.
Manchester City can confirm Kevin De Bruyne has suffered a lateral collateral ligament (LCL) lesion in his right knee. No surgery is required, and the midfielder is expected to be out for around three months. Had hoped it wouldn't be longer than the two months that was reported earlier and he would only miss the games against Iceland (away) and the Swiss (home). Coming back in November for the return legs.
FIFA's new ranking and League A groups. Nations League groups ... points dif. top and bottom sides ... group average Belgium's group ..................... 252 (Belgium - Iceland) ................ 1597 Germany's group ................... 186 (France - Holland) ................. 1609 Spain's group ........................... 63 (Croatia - Spain) .................... 1613 Portugal's group ....................... 67 (Portugal - Italy) ..................... 1556
Erik Hamrén will begin work with Iceland in September. We last faced him at EURO2016 when we knocked out Sweden, which was also the last time he managed a team until now.
Fresh blood: Castagne, Vanaken, Trossard and, oddly, Verstraete. KDB, Januzaj, J.Lukaku, Praet, et al. injured. Had hoped to see Denayer back but with his transfer to Lyon it might not be the worst idea to settle in at his new club. Kabasele has been receiving plaudits, in great form plus playing at a higher level and is even a bit younger than Boyata, yet again ... no love. Shaun Maloney (ex-Celtic) is a new addition to Bobby's staff, hmm, so much love for Celtic. Henry will be staying on and is the new first assistant/striker trainer.