Israel was the bottom team in Pot 3 for the draw. They were dawn into Group I, which has five teams. The top seed will be the loser if this month's Nations League Quarterfinal between Germany and Italy. The Quarterfinal losers go in groups of five where each team has two matchdays off, and get their matchdays off this month. The Quarterfinal winners play the Nations League Semifinals and Final in June and go in groups of four that start in September, which will be the shortest time from teams' first qualifier to the World Cup in a long time and maybe ever. Going back to Israel, their group also has Norway, Estonia, and Moldova. Israel is not allowed to host. Their first two games that would have been at home will be in Debrecen, Hungary, and their last two games that would have been at home do not have a site yet. Here is the group's schedule: 22 March: Moldova vs. Norway Israel vs. Estonia Off: Italy or Germany 25 March: Moldova vs. Estonia Israel vs. Norway Off: Italy of Germany 6 June: Estonia vs. Israel Norway vs. Italy or Germany Off: Moldova 9 June: Estonia vs. Norway Italy or Germany vs. Moldova Off: Israel 5 September: Moldova vs. Israel Italy or Germany vs. Estonia Off: Norway 8 September: Israel vs. Italy or Germany Norway vs. Moldova Off: Estonia 11 October: Norway vs. Israel Estonia vs. Italy or Germany Off: Moldova 14 October: Estonia vs. Moldova Italy or Germany vs. Israel Off: Norway 13 November: Norway vs. Estonia Moldova vs. Italy or Germany Off: Israel 16 November: Israel vs. Moldova Italy or Germany vs. Norway Off: Estonia Italy or Germany will start out behind because the other teams will play two games first, and they will have two fewer games than at least one other team until after Matchday 6. Israel is unlikely to qualify unless they win their first two games. Israel needs to finish above Norway, and teams need to win home (in this case neutral site) games against a team they need to finish above. The group winners qualify. The twelve second place teams and four teams from the Nations League go into a 16 team playoff with two rounds that qualifies four teams. UEFA is the only confederation that will not have a team in the interconfederational playoffs.
Israel 2-1 Estonia Estonia's Maksim Paskotsi scored in the 10th, Estonia's Karl Hein scored an own goal in the 23rd, and Israel's Elazar Dasa scored in the 75th. Israel's Mohammad Abu Fani shot in the second minute, and it was headed off the line. Hein is Estonia's goalkeeper, and his own goal came from a shot off the post and his back.Estonia's Markus Soomets was ejected for a second yellow in the 87th. The score was unimpressive, but Israel dominated statistics. Israel had 88.2 percent of expected goals (2.54 to 0.34), 75 percent possession, 80.6 percent of shots (29 to 7), 78.6 percent of shots on goal (11 to 3), 76.2 percent of shots inside the box (16 to 5), all the big chances (4 to 0), 83.3 percent of combined corner kicks and free kicks (30 to 6), 75.5 percent of attempted passes (629 to 204), 80.2 percent of completed passes (552 to 136), a higher pass completion percentage (552/629 = 87.8 percent to 136/204 = 66.7 percent), 81.4 percent of attempted passes in the final third (245 to 56), 90.0 percent of completed passes in the final third (197 to 22), a higher pass in the final third completion percentage (197/245 = 80.4 percent to 22/56 = 39.3 percent), a higher percent of attempted passes that were in the final third (245/629 = 39.0 percent to 56/204 = 27.5 percent), and a higher percent of completed passes that were in the final third (197/552 = 35.7 percent to 22/136 = 16.2 percent). Flash Score gave man of the match to Eli Dasa. I did not find highlights. Israel will stay in Debrecen, Hungary to play Norway, who is in first after winning 5-0 at Moldova. Norway scored in the 5th, and led 4-0 at halftime. Some of their statistics were not as dominant as Israel's such as shots on goal being 8 to 4, and combined corner kicks and free kicks being 16 to 15. Tomorrow Germany and Italy play to determine which one goes in this group.
Estonia 1-3 Israel Estonia's Mattias Kait scored in the 31st. Dan Biton scored in the 39th and 49th, and Mohammad Abu Fani scored a penalty kick in the 90th. Flashscore's recap is at https://www.flashscore.com/match/football/IaFEGS1S/#/report and they gave Man of the Match to Biton. Israel had 63.0 percent of expected goals (2.08 to 1.22), 87.1 percent of expected goals on target (2.23 to 0.33), 47 percent of possession, 47.1 percent of completed passes (339 to 380), 48.0 percent of attempted passes (414 to 448), a lower pass completion percentage (339/414 = 81.9 percent to 380/448 = 84.8 percent), 30.6 percent of completed long passes (11 to 25), 47.6 percent of attempted long passes (39 to 43), a lower long pass completion percentage (11/39 = 28.2 percent to 25/43 = 58.1 percent), 63.0 percent of completed passes in the final third (121 to 71), 59.5 percent of attempted passes in the final third (154 to 105), a higher passes in the final third completion percentage (121/154 = 78.6 percent to 71/105 = 67.6 percent), 33.3 percent of completed crosses (2 to 4), 25 percent of attempted crosses (8 to 24), a higher cross completion percentage (2/8 = 25 percent to 4/24 = 16.7 percent), 66.7 percent of shots (16 to 8), 77.8 percent of shots on target (7 to 2), a lower percent of shots on target that were goals (3/7 = 42.9 percent to 1/2 = 50 percent), 66.7 percent of shots inside the box (10 to 5), 50 percent of big chances (2 to 2), 60 percent of combined corner kicks and free kicks (18 to 12), 61.7 percent of touches in the opposition box (29 to 18), 100 percent of accurate through passes (3 to 0), 71.3 percent of expected assists (2.09 to 0.84), 38.2 percent of throw-ins (13 to 21), 58.0 percent of duels won (47 to 34), 50 percent of clearances (20 to 20), 41.7 percent of interceptions (5 to 7), 0 percent of errors leading to goal (0 to 2), and 20 percent of saves (1 to 4). The group's other game was Norway 3-0 Italy. Because of the Nations League, Italy had the first two matchdays off, so they do not have any points, albeit they played their hardest game. Israel has the second June matchday off. Norway has 9 points from 3 games, Israel has 6 points from 3 games, Estonia has 3 points from 3 games, Italy has 1 points from 1 game, and Moldova has 0 points from 2 games.
Today's games were Estonia 0-1 Norway and Italy 2-0 Moldova. That makes the table: Norway: 12 points from 4 games Israel: 6 points from 3 games Italy: 3 points from 2 games Estonia: 3 points from 4 games Moldova: 0 points from 3 games Norway's +11 goal differential is tied for the best in UEFA, but the 24 of 54 teams in groups of four did not start yet. The next games are in September, with Matchdays 5 and 6 of 10 in groups of five, and Matchdays 1 and 2 of 6 in groups of four. I wonder when the last time (if ever) teams started qualifying under a year before the World Cup was, but the UEFA Nations League group stage and knockout rounds use up matchdays.
Israel played Slovakia in a friendly in Hungary. Israel's Yarden Shua scored the only goal in the 47th. Statistics were mixed. Israel had a big advantage in shots on target, 7 to 2. Slovakia was a small favorite. Slovakia entered 32 spots better in the FIFA Rankings, 46th to 78th. Slovakia entered 9 spots better in ELO, 48th to 57th, and it moved Israel up to 55th.