UEFA Nations League || 12 & 18 Nov || Netherlands and Italy || Amsterdam & Sarajevo

Discussion in 'Bosnia & Herzegovina' started by Sudžuka, Sep 21, 2017.

  1. Sudžuka

    Sudžuka Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jan 27, 2013
    [​IMG]

    LEAGUE B
    (teams to be split into four groups of three, draw in January)

    Russia, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Hungary

    2018/19 UEFA Nations League: how it works

    [​IMG]


    The UEFA Nations League is a new competition that aims to ensure the continued success of national team football by replacing most friendlies with competitive matches and by allowing all nations to play against equally ranked teams.
    • All 55 UEFA associations enter.
    • The teams are split into four leagues, A–B–C–D, according to their position in the UEFA National Team Coefficient Rankings following the end of the European Qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup (as per 11 October 2017; play-off results will not be included).
    • League A will consist of the 12 top-ranked teams. The next 12 teams will be in League B, the next 15 in League C and the remaining 16 in League D.
    • Leagues A and B will each comprise four groups of three teams.
    • League C will contain one group of three teams and three groups of four sides; League D will be formed by four groups of four teams.
    • All draw procedures to be confirmed. Matches to be played home and away between September and November 2018 (teams will play four or six games depending on the size of their group).
    • The four group winners of League A will qualify for the UEFA Nations League Finals, to be held in June 2019, with two semi-finals, a third-place match and the final. One host country will be appointed by the UEFA Executive Committee in December 2018 from among the finalist teams.
    • The group winners in Leagues B, C and D will gain promotion and those who finish bottom of the groups in Leagues A, B and C will be relegated.
    National teams will thus either be competing to become UEFA Nations League winners, or be fighting for promotion and to avoid relegation.

    The League Phase Draw for the UEFA Nations League will take place at the SwissTech Convention Centre in Lausanne on 24 January 2018, when the new UEFA Nations League trophy will also be unveiled.

    Qualifying for UEFA EURO 2020

    Qualifying for UEFA EURO 2020 remains largely the same (with 24 finalists in all), although the European Qualifiers will now begin in the March after a major tournament instead of immediately in September (i.e. March 2019 in this case). No team will gain automatic qualification as hosts (there are 13 host nations in all).

    Qualifying group stage (20 teams qualify)
    The teams will be split into ten groups of five or six, and the top two from each group will qualify for the final tournament, determining the first 20 places.

    European Qualifiers play-offs explained
    Play-offs (4 teams qualify)
    The last four EURO places will be won through the European Qualifiers play-offs, which will be contested by the 16 UEFA Nations League group winners (i.e. the four group winners in each of the four divisions).

    • Each league will have a path of its own and each path will feature two single-leg semi-finals and one single-leg final. The winner of each path will win a ticket to UEFA EURO 2020.

    • If a UEFA Nations League group winner has already qualified via the European Qualifiers, then their spot will go to the next best-ranked team in their league. If a league does not have four teams to compete, the remaining slots are allocated to teams from another league, according to the overall UEFA Nations League rankings.
     
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  2. BosanskiRambo

    BosanskiRambo Member+

    Manchester City
    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Jun 4, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    im so confused.
     
  3. PureEvil

    PureEvil Member+

    Jul 30, 2014
    California
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    yea da fuq is this care bear tournament bs?
     
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  4. trts

    trts Member+

    Feb 3, 2007
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    This will have as much prestige as the confederations cup.
     
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  5. Hadzjia Sven Susic

    Aug 7, 2011
    Club:
    Cardiff City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    ********ing hell.
     
  6. Blondo

    Blondo Member+

    Sep 21, 2013
    The confed cup is just a dress rehearsal that includes absolute dross like Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Mexico, Russia, etc. while stronger teams donot take it seriously. The Nations League Final Four main event will feature Europe's very best ... four of Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, etc.

    The NL formula promises to be a lot better than the donkeyshit circus that is a 24 team EURO ... it's the highest quality of play with the very best facing the very best ... the NL is what the EUROs were before the 80s when only 4 teams reached the final event ... and they can easily expand the NL final event to 8 teams (or even 16 teams, i.e. what was perfect for the EUROs). Any NL games that aren't part of the final event can basically be viewed as qualifiers for the EUROs or the NL Final Four.

    NL Final Four qualification is a lot harder than in those old EUROs (and even more so compared to the current EUROs) ... League A, the only path to the Final Four, is cut-throat ... you either make it out of a qualifying group with e.g. Germany and France or end up in a relegation battle with one of those same two teams ... 1 out of 3 quality teams will be relegated and 1 out of 3 still has a shot at silverware (= tough yet mouth-watering Qs) ... there's the Final Four main event, the promotion/relegation battle, 4 EURO berths up for grabs after winning NL play-offs, top seed status in European Qs or dropping down a pot, etc. ... I expect matches between Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, etc. to draw a lot more attention than regular qualifiers for the WC or EURO with the likes of Cyprus and Gibraltar ... with League A Uefa have more or less created a Champions League for national teams ... a very solid group phase from September - November and then a KO phase during the Final Four main event in the summers between EUROs and World Cups.

    Bosnia still have a chance to join the ranks of Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, etc. in League A (only 2.4% though) ... but if you miss out on League A next month ... winning promotion from League B isn't exactly a piece of piss ... Holland (sooner or later will start getting results again), Croatia, Wales, Iceland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Austria, (an up and coming) Denmark, etc. ... they won't make it easy on Bosnia ... and if you do win promotion you'll face Europe's very best straightaway in qualifiers for the Final Four ... imagine a qualifying group with only Bosnia, Germany and France ... 1 of these teams being relegated and only 1 qualifying for the Final Four main event ... ECQs or WCQs are as soft as a particularly flaccid carrot in comparison.
     
  7. Pjanic2Dzeko

    Pjanic2Dzeko Member+

    Oct 23, 2012
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
  8. Hadzjia Sven Susic

    Aug 7, 2011
    Club:
    Cardiff City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    Basically it's harder for the nobodies of this world.

    Eh - not thrilled. Rather have an even starting point and a tough finish than a tough start and an even harder finish.
     
  9. Blondo

    Blondo Member+

    Sep 21, 2013
    The NL replaces friendlies, meaningless crap ... better to improve your seeding and avoid them, which is what the likes of Wales and Romania did, despite forfeiting a bit of revenue ... the nobodies of this world usually had to face each other and didn't generate much profit ... the big sides made a lot more money from friendlies and kept it all themselves ... especially the smaller/poorer sides will benefit from the NL's centralised media rights distribution. Regular Qs, the EURO and the WC are still in place ... yet what was unthinkable before ... the NL makes very real ... teams like Germany can easily be relegated/drop down a pot in the Qs draw while the absolute nobodies from League D get the best deal with a guaranteed spot in the EUROs via their own play-offs (maybe the NL will also be linked to WCQs however I doubt the likes of Luxembourg will get a guaranteed WC spot) ... TL;DR, everybody stands to gain, not only financially but also from a purely football perspective, keeping in mind how crap friendlies are compared to how promising the NL sounds.

    Congrats Bosnia ... you have reached the EURO2020 play-offs, at the very least ... even if Bosnia end up in League B next month ... even if you're completely demolished in the NL group phase and are relegated + drop down to pot 3 for the ECQ draw ... even if Bosnia fail to qualify in the regular ECQs (20 spots up for grabs ffs) ... even then you've virtually secured entry into the EURO2020 play-offs. I've added one of my older posts below, having a look at the NL play-offs ... even if Bosnia are the worst League B side of them all ... in the example, Bosnia would then be team 2B and you'd face the 2nd worst League B team, 1B, and the 5th + 6th ranked teams from League C ... those opponents won't be top sides ... plus as a League B team you'd get the advantage of playing at home in the one-legged SF against a lower ranked (League C) team and a draw decides where the one-legged NL play-off final is played ... EURO qualifiers have never been this easy, at the very least, Bosnia already have EURO2020 play-offs in the bag and can only aim higher.

    The 24 team EURO is a mistake ... with 16 teams we had a perfect competition instead of a social event with an awful format ... still I'm not against change as long as it's for the better ... as opposed to Uefa's 24 team EURO plans the NL sounds very promising ... for everybody involved ... e.g. Belgium used to have a team of nobodies not that long ago and as it's a small country it's only a matter of time before the big names are replaced by lesser ones ... Belgium can try to make the most of the NL now (or any other team on the up because there's silverware to be won every year from 2018 onwards) ... and once the window closes for Belgium's current generation the NL has plenty on offer for the nobodies of this world ... the Nations League is both the hardest competition to win and the hardest to lose.
     
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  10. Hadzjia Sven Susic

    Aug 7, 2011
    Club:
    Cardiff City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    Makes more sense. Appreciate you outlining everything and sparing me the legwork.

    This setup makes it incredibly difficult to win, difficult to lose, but if you're not 1st - you lost no matter what.

    For now, there is a silver lining, but give it a decade and all the historically good teams will be in the same group, giving them an edge in experience and play time which will not be translated to the lower groups and it'll be the same scenario as now minus the cindarella stories.
     
  11. Blondo

    Blondo Member+

    Sep 21, 2013
    Over 200 teams have never won the World Cup ... top sides like Spain and France only have 1 title ... and it was a loooong wait as they only managed it fairly recently. It's a popular game, the biggest in the world ... there will be plenty of losers ... if it were easy to take 1st it wouldn't be much of an achievement ... the Nations League being incredibly hard to win will only add to the prestige.

    Uefa made the NL extremely slippery ... the promotion/relegation battle also affects the traditional powerhouses (1 out of 3 quality teams will be relegated) ... it will keep them on their toes but even then they'll slip up ... the same teams staying up, that will be extremely hard for them (but very much deserved if they manage to do so) ... with a massive churn of 4 out of 12 teams being replaced in League A, even 8 out of 12 teams in League B, etc. there will be plenty of new faces in each league ... compare that with the current WCQs and ECQs where top seeds like Germany never drop down a pot and hardly ever face other top sides in qualifying ... this will also change with the introduction of the NL ... top seed status in regular Qs won't be a given any longer, no place to hide from other top sides in the NL.

    With a major tournament every year, instead of every two years, chances for cinderella stories just doubled ... in the NL they can compete with teams on their level first and try to improve while the resistance increases when they move up a league ... which could help structural improvement ... in WCQs and ECQs they hardly stand a chance at qualification from the beginning ... in the NL not only can they win promotion they have a real shot at qualifying for the EUROs via their league's own play-off path as well ... also, the NL will provide more stability for smaller countries as they'll struggle less with generating enough revenue ... due to the lack of decent support it will help these sides a lot more. The NL doesn't have to be a quick fix for all problems ... it isn't ... but it's a big boost for a lot of teams ... and considering how crap friendlies are the NL would be a welcome change for fans.
     
  12. Hadzjia Sven Susic

    Aug 7, 2011
    Club:
    Cardiff City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    Not gonna lie, hard to keep up reading that I don't know if it's the weed or the complexity of everything but you seem passionate about it so I'll just trust your judgement.
     
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  13. Blondo

    Blondo Member+

    Sep 21, 2013
    More and more people are looking forward to the NL and Uefa haven't really started promoting it yet (TBF football is like weed, not a hard sell at all) ... in about 11 months we'll see how good the group phase is ... when the games are quality the NL will grow really big really fast ... if that's not the case, hey-ho, it will still be better than the meaningless friendlies we currently have.
     
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  14. Young Zmaj

    Young Zmaj Member

    Juventus
    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Oct 7, 2016
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    I guess time to look forward for this. We need to rebuild. Start integrating players like Hodžič, Šimunović, etc. as regulars into the squad. I'd say this group of players should be considered our "core" and pretty much has to stay together, as least for one more campaign: Džeko, Pjanić, Kolašinac, Begović, Bešić.

    The time is up for Ibišević and Medunjanin. Lulić is almost at that point too but we don't have an adequate replacement for him yet.

    I'd like to see Hajrović be given a chance again. Duljević looked solid vs. Belgium. The spots for our backline are pretty open imo, with Kola/Šimunovič the clear quality of our defense. Kodro and Miličević can be useful options/depth for our attack.
     
  15. Young Zmaj

    Young Zmaj Member

    Juventus
    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Oct 7, 2016
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    My lineup going forward:

    Begovic
    ? - Dumić - Šimunović - Kolašinac
    Cimirot - Bešić
    Hajrović - Pjanić - Duljević
    Džeko

    No clue for RB. I’d rather have Pjanić in a playmaking position up front rather than laying back down the field, hopefully he’ll be more effective for the repka in this position. Dulja/Hajro is a good set of wingers.
     
  16. Young Zmaj

    Young Zmaj Member

    Juventus
    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Oct 7, 2016
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    So these are the pots for the League B draw:

    Pot 1
    Austria
    Wales
    Russia
    Slovakia

    Pot 2
    Sweden
    Ukraine
    Ireland
    Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Pot 3
    Northern Ireland
    Denmark
    Czech Republic
    Turkey

    For me, the best group would be:

    Slovakia
    BiH
    Northern Ireland

    Worst group would be:
    Wales
    BiH
    Denmark

    Although there’s not much of a difference between the groups as all nations are obviously similar in quality. I think winning any group will be doable if we can get the right manager.

     
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  17. Sudžuka

    Sudžuka Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jan 27, 2013
    If I was going to guess our new manager, before today I would have said Hadzibegic, but he told the press something about the need to eliminate ethnic politics from our football. So, I'm pretty sure that eliminates him from contention for the manager spot if Bazdarevic does get sacked. Hadzibegic isn't good enough though, would have similar problems.

    If I was going to make a list of potential managers that the Savez might interview I would guess:

    1. Robert Prosinecki (could accept Slovenia position though)
    2. Srecko Katanec
    3. Ante Cacic
    4. Igor Stimac
    5. Zlatan Bajramovic
    6. Darije Kalezic
    7. Radovan Curcic
    8. Radomir Antic ( I think they wanted him in the past, but he wasn't interested in the position)
    9. Ljubinko Drulovic
    10. Ivica Osim

    Not really a great list, out of all of those I would kind of be interested in Bajramovic, but not sold on him. I know a lot of people want Barbarez, but thats not happening. No way the RS Savez approves of this:

    [​IMG]
     
  18. BosnianPapiChulo

    May 8, 2013
    Calgary
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    I don't really see any progress from any of the names listed there unfortunately, but it looks like we don't have any viable options available with this savez. I'd honestly love if Slaven Bilic were to leave West Ham or get sacked and manage us... But that's just a pipe dream.
     
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  19. BosanskiRambo

    BosanskiRambo Member+

    Manchester City
    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Jun 4, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    Dusan Bajevic, or Veljko Paunovic (doubt he leaves MLS).
     
  20. BosanskiRambo

    BosanskiRambo Member+

    Manchester City
    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Jun 4, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
  21. BosnianGear

    BosnianGear Member

    Oct 13, 2011
    US
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    Lol the pitch actually caught on fire?
     
  22. Hadzjia Sven Susic

    Aug 7, 2011
    Club:
    Cardiff City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
    Its a flare...

    Basically it's civilian grade phosphorus
     
  23. Sudžuka

    Sudžuka Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jan 27, 2013
    Cross Antic off the list

    http://sportsport.ba/bh_fudbal/antic-niko-me-nije-zvao-niti-me-interesuje-klupa-bih/254948
     
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  24. BosanskiRambo

    BosanskiRambo Member+

    Manchester City
    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    Jun 4, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina
  25. Zvornik

    Zvornik Member

    Jun 30, 2015
    Club:
    FK Crvena Zvezda Beograd
    Nat'l Team:
    Bosnia-Herzegovina

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