The Nations League Chat
The draw for Euro 2020 was announced yesterday morning. Interestingly, it looked very much like any Euro draw in the past with a major power as the seeded team, one or two second tier sides, a third-tier side and a minnow in each group. This was striking, as it refutes the explicit rationale that UEFA made for its inaugural Nations League this fall - that is, that the NL would cut down on international match congestion and promote competition between teams at the same level. Those sides who were relegated from the top groups were meant to be punished with tougher draws for Euro 2020. But there is Croatia as the seeded team in a lightweight group after all. All of this begs the question again - what was the point of all of those Nations League matches this fall? Here is the Euro 2020 draw in full:
Group A: England, Czech R., Bulgaria, Montenegro, Kosovo
Group B: Portugal, Ukraine, Serbia, Lithuania, Luxembourg
Group C: Netherlands, Germany, N. Ireland, Estonia, Belarus
Group D: Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Georgia, Gibraltar
Group E: Croatia, Wales, Slovakia, Hungary, Azerbaijan
Group F: Spain, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Faroe Isl., Malta
Group G: Poland, Austria, Israel, Slovenia, Macedonia, Latvia
Group H: France, Iceland, Turkey, Albania, Moldova, Andorra
Group I: Belgium, Russia, Scotland, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, S Marino
Group J: Italy, Bos-Herz, Finland, Greece, Armenia, Liechtenstein
Group B: Portugal, Ukraine, Serbia, Lithuania, Luxembourg
Group C: Netherlands, Germany, N. Ireland, Estonia, Belarus
Group D: Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Georgia, Gibraltar
Group E: Croatia, Wales, Slovakia, Hungary, Azerbaijan
Group F: Spain, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Faroe Isl., Malta
Group G: Poland, Austria, Israel, Slovenia, Macedonia, Latvia
Group H: France, Iceland, Turkey, Albania, Moldova, Andorra
Group I: Belgium, Russia, Scotland, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, S Marino
Group J: Italy, Bos-Herz, Finland, Greece, Armenia, Liechtenstein
posted by The Blue Devil @ 1:02 PM
4 Comments:
BANNED!!!!
All the international breaks will now be for the Euros....no friendlies!!
LOL! I know mate. Here's my two cents on it, for what it's worth. Because the consequences of the Nations League appear to be so low, all of those matches with Spain and Croatia in the fall were essentially friendlies. So, instead of enjoying qualifiers interspersed with one or two friendlies, we had a whole fall full of friendlies. And now we've got a condensed qualification period with match congestion and the possibility of injuring key players.
Don't like it. Bloody modern football.
Bah Humbug
All the Nations League games were played wth each team going to to win. No subbing all the starters!
Great success
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