UEFA Nations League

[Max Wall]

2 minutes ago, Bert said:

I was reading and it was saying someone from league d will qualify through the playoffs. 

Wow. If that's the case, it really is an extra chance for some real minnows then.

[Lionator]

10 minutes ago, Bert said:

I was reading and it was saying someone from league d will qualify through the playoffs. 

Yes so somebody from each League will qualify for the event through the play offs, so given that they've won their groups in League D, one of Belarus, Macedonia, Kosovo or Georgia will be at Euro 2020. Winning their group means that Scotland will compete with other League C winners Finland, Norway and Serbia for a place if they don't qualify through the qualifying stages. It gets complicated if teams have already qualified so if all four teams in the play offs qualify then the next best ranked teams who haven't qualified will compete in the play offs in each league. It does get more complicated from there if all 12 teams from League A have already qualified but we shall leave that for UEFA to deal with.

[Bert]

7 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Yes so somebody from each League will qualify for the event through the play offs, so given that they've won their groups in League D, one of Belarus, Macedonia, Kosovo or Georgia will be at Euro 2020. Winning their group means that Scotland will compete with other League C winners Finland, Norway and Serbia for a place if they don't qualify through the qualifying stages. It gets complicated if teams have already qualified so if all four teams in the play offs qualify then the next best ranked teams who haven't qualified will compete in the play offs in each league. It does get more complicated from there if all 12 teams from League A have already qualified but we shall leave that for UEFA to deal with.

Yeah that’s sort of how I got it. 

 

At the actual Euro’s, the top two and the four best third placed teams on 6 groups of 4 (  ) go through to the knockouts. 

[Max Wall]

9 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Yes so somebody from each League will qualify for the event through the play offs, so given that they've won their groups in League D, one of Belarus, Macedonia, Kosovo or Georgia will be at Euro 2020. Winning their group means that Scotland will compete with other League C winners Finland, Norway and Serbia for a place if they don't qualify through the qualifying stages. It gets complicated if teams have already qualified so if all four teams in the play offs qualify then the next best ranked teams who haven't qualified will compete in the play offs in each league. It does get more complicated from there if all 12 teams from League A have already qualified but we shall leave that for UEFA to deal with.

That actually sounds like a remarkably good idea to me. 

[Finnegan]

Can't wait til Kosovo get drawn in Serbias group at the euros. 

[Blue ROI]

O'Neill gone from Ireland.

 

Sad how it's ended.

[Nalis]

30 minutes ago, Blue ROI said:

O'Neill gone from Ireland.

 

Sad how it's ended.

Its not a great squad to work sadly from compared to previous years. Shame as countries like Ireland are in that tier of nations with the likes of Serbia, Poland, Romania, etc where success is cyclical.

 

Hope fresh ideas might spark a revival though.

[Sampson]

MON was great for us in the 90s but he sadly hasn't moved with the times. Still not using prozone and caring more about man-management than sports science and incremental gains make up look a bit washed up in the modern game sadly.

[Blue ROI]

1 hour ago, Nalis said:

Its not a great squad to work sadly from compared to previous years. Shame as countries like Ireland are in that tier of nations with the likes of Serbia, Poland, Romania, etc where success is cyclical.

 

Hope fresh ideas might spark a revival though.

Yes it's a very limited squad. The weakest I can recall anyway.

 

MON should have left after Denmark (which he did but a year too late). It was just too big a humiliation to leave after a 5-1 defeat and the biggest of his career.

 

He actually did reasonably well with what he had. Euro 2016 qualification and a world cup playoff. Not something I would have predicted towards the end of Trap's reign. Our squad is made up of bottom half PL or championship plodders and only Seamus Coleman is consistent at a very high level.

 

Not ensuring qualification against Georgia and Serbia in September 2017 was the beginning of the end for him though. There is no point even debating the reign post-November 2017.

 

We talk about England hounding their manager but we ain't much better here. Northern Ireland (and Iceland's) recent improvement has been a stick to beat MON with. Since Charlton went it's been messy with managers ever since.

 

There might be a new manager bounce but I would worry it will get worse before it gets better. The squad is painully limited compared to previous years.

Edited 21 November 2018 by Blue ROI

[irishfoxkev]

2016 was certainly the best year of his reign. A couple of long term injuries (Coleman and Brady) haven’t helped in last couple of years as a lot of young  inexperienced players have been introduced but sadly they just haven’t made that step up yet.....Pity they couldn’t have emulated the rugby lads. ...Sadly the end of the LCFC link to the Irish job with all the management team including Steve Guppy now gone.....Leicester link might be  reinstated as I see Neil Lennon  and Nigel Pearson are among bookies early runners for the job . 

[Tuna]

I scoffed and sneered at this when it was first announced but it's been a great success.

[Max Wall]

20 minutes ago, Tuna said:

I scoffed and sneered at this when it was first announced but it's been a great success.

Some genuinely very good games. Most of the games I saw didn't peter out like friendlies tend to either, they had the feeling of a knockout cup tie at times.

Edited 21 November 2018 by Max Wall
typo

[RonnieTodger]

Turns out winning the Nations League finals in the summer doesn't even guarantee you a spot at Euro 2020. There'll be a repeat play-offs in March with the teams that didn't qualify through the normal process.

 

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/internationalfootball/uefa-nations-league-format-explained-euro-2020-qualifiers-playoffs-what-happens-next-a3996021.html

Edited 22 November 2018 by RonnieTodger

[Carl the Llama]

I suppose if winning the nations league guaranteed qualification then there would be no point in the winners participating in qualifiers so they'd have a year of meaningless friendlies while everyone else is engaging in competitive fixtures so that's fair enough.

[Nalis]

If you cant finish in the top 2 of a 5 team group then you probably dont deserve to qualify for the Euros anyway.

[Wymsey]

England are to face the Netherlands in the semi-final.

Edited 3 December 2018 by Wymeswold fox

[Bert]

Any tie that we got handed would’ve been tricky whilst being winnable. Netherlands are slowly turning themselves round and came through arguably the toughest group to get there. 

 

Could have a great few days in the Portuguese sunshine in early June, whilst also having the chance to win a trophy. 

[davieG]

England will play the Netherlands in the semi-final of the Uefa Nations League on 6 June 2019 at Estadio D Afonso Henriques in Guimaraes.

Hosts Portugal face Switzerland on 5 June at Porto's Estadio do Dragao.

The final will be played on 9 June, with the third-place play-off game taking place the same day.

The winner of the tournament will receive £6.67m in prize money while the fourth placed nation will earn around £4m.

Gareth Southgate's side reached the last four of the Nations League by topping a group containing Croatia and Spain.

Switzerland pipped Belgium to top spot in their group by virtue of their superior head-to-head record, beating them 5-2 in their final game.

European champions Portugal progressed at the expense of Poland and Italy, and the Netherlands qualified with a 90th-minute equaliser in their final group game in Germany.

The Nations League began in in September, splitting 55 nations into four tiers with League A the top tier.

Each league contained four groups and the competition also provides a second opportunity to qualify for the European Championship finals in 2020.

[The Year Of The Fox]

Anyone wanting cheap flights, look at Ryanair stansted to Santiago 

£36 one way. There’s a bloke running busses to Porto 

[Dr Marco]

IT'S COMING HOME !

[Ric Flair]

Southgate set to name his squad, it's a bit of a nightmare with all 4 finalists in Europe being English teams and our only decent striker coming back from a nasty injury (unless Vardy has had enough of Santorini already with his missus).

 

Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi are both out, which is frustrating.

 

It doesn't appear that any of the U21 lot like Maddison, Foden etc will get a call as they have the Euros to contend with this summer. I think that's wise, it'll be a great showcase for Maddison, Barnes, Choudhury and Gray. The former three are yet to really excel for the U21's, whereas Gray has always done well.

 

I really thought we'd win this this summer but Holland look very strong and we have so many fitness issues. Will still be a decent bonus to the otherwise dull sporting calendar this summer.

[ScouseFox]

that squad is genuinely rubbish. how the hell did we get to the semi finals of the world cup hahaha. ward prowse and redmond are barely premier league players let alone internationals. dier, rice and henderson. that seems necessary. delph, barkley, lingard, looks like a parody squadlist that someone has made specifically trying to choose the worst and most out of form england players they can find. 

[RonnieTodger]

Forgot about the U21 Euros, should be a good watch

[Dr Marco]

this is what I would play:

1)Pickford

2)Chilwell

3)Walker

4)Maguire

5)Stones

6)Henderson

7)Lindgaard

8)Maddison

9)Kane

10)Sterling

11)Rashford

 

Come On!

[The Year Of The Fox]

Any other leicester fans heading out for this? 

We’re out on the 5th and back home on 10th

 

Keep an eye out for the Vichai Had A Dream flag