It is for this reason I cannot understand how Italia got only 2 spots in the laughably horrendous club world cup, and one of those teams of all teams was Juventus. How in the world did Juventus get in over teams like Atalanta and Fiorentina who actually make cup finals. Hell, give it to AC Milan and Napoli who have won scudettos more recently. The most clown tournament I have ever seen in my life.
Can anyone tell me if italy lose to Germany in nations league di we go into world cup group with 5 teams in total with the likes of san marino or Malta kr Gibraltar for instance.
UEFA Club Rankings. Your dismay should be why Inter Miami got in and why MLS has the same amount of Representatives as Italy, Spain, England, Germany, and more than France's Ligue 1. Also that Mexico got 3 spots.
Yes we do, but to be honest, I almost want us to lose to Germany because if we do, we get a pretty easy qualifying group. If we win, we get Slovakia, Northern Ireland, and Luxembourg. Not terrible, but Slovakia is underrated and Luxembourg did pretty decently in the Euro 2024 qualifiers. If we lose we get Norway, Israel, Estonia, and Moldova which I feel would be quite a bit of an easier group.
We have to qualify this way or other way. We may have fish Slovakia/Norway from Pot 2 but we avoided Turkey and Serbia. No excuses, we have to win our group. And we will! Forza Italia!
I'll state the obvious. If Italy fail in either path, they absolutely suck. No excuses not to qualify. They can blame Officiating, wrong choice of studs, the wind blowing 1 KM/H more from the Northeast than they are used to or whatever excuse they can drum up. Italy must qualify at all costs. I don't care if they have to punch, kick, spit, hair pull. Two potential paths to #FIFAWorldCup 2026 👀#Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/JoZnZRTeQ7— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri_En) December 13, 2024
Kinda agree that the UNL loser path is easier. Luxembourg seem to stick around in matches only to fade near the end. Didn't Slovakia give England all they could handle at EC'24? Northern Ireland can be a bogey team once in a while 2022 Qulifiers and a 0-0 Draw in Belfast. 1958 as well. Loser path... Moldova and Estonia are nothing. Israel can be had as Italy showed them just recently. Any team that has Haaland should not be underestimated.
To be honest, Slovakia might be the most underrated team in Europe. People really underestimate them. Yes they almost beat England in Euro 2024, and before that they beat Belgium, and only tied Romania due to a controversial penalty given to Romania. They also have a good historical record against us; don’t forget 2010 World Cup. And all around, they have a reputation of really frustrating big teams and sometimes getting upsets. Slovakia is NO JOKE. Not to mention they do have Skriniar and Lobotka and those are quality players. I’m glad we avoided Turkey, but I feel Serbia would be easier for us than Slovakia. Yes Serbia might look better all around on paper, but games are not played on paper. Slovakia has had much better results than Serbia in the past years. Norway is not to be underestimated but besides Odegard and Haaland, it’s mostly Serie B quality or even Serie C quality players. Definitely weaker than Slovakia for sure.
I am not sure which path is easier. I am sure that we have to win any of these. To be honest I personally think that the winner group could be maybe easier but I hear your opinions. When does the loser path group start the qualifiers?
Yes @Mean Machine. Lobotka and Skriniar are the precisely the 2 players that came to mind. Lobotka is criminally underrated.
Group K LOL @ Serbia and Albania in the same Group. All these permeation and restrictions and this one slipped past the FIFA braintrust.
both groups are far more winnable than 2018 and 2022 and we are far better. Gatti just put Haaland in his pocket. Im not worried they will also drop points against other teams likely. with that said I'd love for us to win the Nations League.
Don't get me started how Inter Miami got shoe-horned in over easily the best MLS club over the last 4 years, my Columbus Crew
I believe had Napoli got past Barca in the UCL last season the spot would have been theirs. Napoli knew this and the system was in place before hand. Unlike what happened with "Inter Miami" where they looked for anything to ensure they qualified.
its ok @Mean Machine .... unlike Milan who boos our NT goalie and is overall a bad luck place for the NT lately, Calabria / Calabrese are massive fans of the NT. Ciccio Calzona will do us a solid.. he knows how bad we need the World Cup.
Why are the nations league finalists required to then play a world cup qualifier against the same team they are playing in the nations league knockouts just to determine their group? That makes no sense. So we have to play Germany in the nations league, then turn around and play them again just to see what group we're in? What's the point of being seeded if that is the case?
No, no. We play Germany in the UNL. Only in the UNL. 2 Legs. See Message 6181. Refresh screen a couple of team if you have to so the X (Tweet) loads on the page. Winner of the UNL QF between Italy vs Germany plays in the group listed first. Loser of the UNL QF between Italy vs Germany plays in the group listed second. Also, your first sentence, you write UNL Finalists. The Finalists are not determined yet. We are still at the QF stage.
I am so tired of hearing Slot talk about Chiesa and lack of fitness. Holy shit, I'm almost at the point where I wish Chiesa never moved to Liverpool.
ok, ok sorry. Didn't realize Nations League was a two leg tie, and then when I tried to find our qualifying group on wikipedia I saw in Group A it said "Winner QF Germany/Italy" and thought for some reason we had to play Germany in a qualifier again for the right to be in Group A lol. Honestly, I was confused but I've sorted out. @AGomes by finalists I actually did mean the final 8 that were given 1 seeds for qualifying. I guess in my mind I consider them finalists because they all got out of the group stage. gd I hate the Nations League