There's no thread or sub forum for this competition that starts within a few weeks and most likely provide clues to form and competitiveness of the various Qatar WC competitors from Europe. So time to start the discussions and comments on the fixtures.
Who does each team play in the 2022/23 Nations League? League A Group A1: France, Denmark, Croatia, Austria Group A2: Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Czech Republic Group A3: Italy, Germany, England, Hungary Group A4: Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Wales League B Group B1: Ukraine, Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Armenia Group B2: Iceland, Russia, Israel, Albania Group B3: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Romania, Montenegro Group B4: Sweden, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia League C Group C1: Turkey, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Faroe Islands Group C2: Northern Ireland, Greece, Kosovo, Cyprus Group C3: Slovakia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan Group C4: Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Georgia, Gibraltar League D Group D1: Liechtenstein, Moldova, Andorra, Latvia Group D2: Malta, Estonia, San Marino What are the dates for the 2022/23 Nations League? Matchdays 1 & 2: 1–8 June 2022 Matchdays 3 & 4: 9–14 June 2022 Matchdays 5 & 6: 22–27 September 2022 Finals draw: tbc Semi-finals: 14 & 15 June 2023 Final & third-place match: 18 June 2023 Play-outs: 21–23 & 24–26 March 2024
As we can see, there are very interesting confrontations set up to give an impression of the state of the competitors in the WC2022.
Seems like teams are taking this edition of the Nations League less seriously than the previous two editions, generally speaking. At least the league "A" teams. The France team is barely recognizable and many others are resting a good chunk of their first choice XI. Not sure if the same holds true in Leagues "B" and "C" (?).
The B and C leagues probably are also the ones with players not exploited to the hilt, due to quality differences of the players.
I cannot give an opinion about other teams, but having seen France's last games, I can tell there are serious worries in defence. I've rarely seen a French defence opening so much space to basically any opponent. As a French fan I'm growing very pessimistic for the World Cup. The way it is I feel that any team can score goals against us. No matter how good can be Mbappé and other forwards, this team will be eliminated at group stage in playing like this. And I see no clear solution to solve it.
The draw for the Final Four tournament in the Netherlands was just made. Netherlands will host Croatia and Spain will play Italy. Matches will take place on 14 and 15 June, respectively. Both the third-place match and the final will be played on that Sunday (18 June).
For League A, I agree. Perhaps even League B. But I admit I like watching Leagues C and D because I believe for those countries the Nations League matters. It gives those teams a chance to play against other countries at their level and, thus, are competitive for them. Quality may not be the best but the players' reactions when scoring are legit and worth while (imo).
hmm... well, it seemed to me that at least the league A teams treated the last edition of the NL like a bunch of friendlies. This may also explain some of the results (England getting relegated, France doing poorly, Hungary almost winning their group, etc.). But I think this was largely due to the timing. e.g. having 4 rounds of games in June when established players really just wanted to go on vacation after a busy season that was condensed due to COVID. The 2024 edition should be better. Agree. I would say its treated quite seriously by most league B teams as well. Huge for teams like Scotland, Bosnia and Israel to win their groups. Not only does it give them a second chance at qualifying for the Euros, but it put them pot 2 for the Euro qualifying draw and they all got placed into manageable groups as a result. OTOH, Sweden, who you'd expect to qualify comfortably for a 24-team tournament, gave themselves a lot of work to do after their poor NL results.
The Nations League isn't by any means a meaningless tournament. It will grow in importance and prestige over the years. In an ideal world each confederation would organise their own Nations League (yes, even OFC and CONMEBOL) and all the group winners would get to participate in a final round. Even those of League C and League D. That would be quite excuting as most of these lower tier nations don't play teams from other confederations that often if at all.