CHECK THE ROLL CARD: WINNERS AND LOSERS
Portugal, France, Germany, Spain, Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands, and Denmark have qualified for the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals will take place in March 2025, with the draw for pairings taking place on November 22nd (the top four teams are seeded; teams from the same group in Stage 1 will not face each other again). The draw for the semi-finals will also be held simultaneously with the quarter-finals. One of the four countries with a team that reaches the semi-finals will be chosen to host the semi-final and final matches. The final will take place on June 8th, 2025.
Germany has qualified for the Nations League quarter-finals.
Poland, Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Switzerland are relegated (to League B). The teams promoted from League B are the Czech Republic, England, Norway, and Wales. The second-to-last teams in League A (Scotland, Belgium, Hungary, and Serbia) will face the second-placed teams from League B (Ukraine, Greece, Austria, and Turkey) in the relegation play-offs. These play-offs will take place in March 2025 and the draw will also be on November 22nd. Teams from League A are seeded and will have home advantage in the second leg of the play-off.
Overall, this has been a successful season for the United Kingdom. Both England and Wales from League B have been promoted. Northern Ireland from League C has been promoted to League B. Scotland in League A at least avoided direct relegation (they will play in the relegation play-offs). And unsurprisingly, Sweden in League C has also been promoted to League B. Sporting Lisbon's rising star, Viktor Gyokeres, scored four goals to help Sweden beat Azerbaijan 6-0 in their final group stage match, becoming the top scorer in the entire tournament with nine goals in League C. Leading the scoring charts in League A is Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, 5 goals), while Erling Haaland (Norway, 7 goals) leads League B.
Germany and Denmark were also considered successful in advancing beyond the Nations League group stage for the first time. The champions of the previous three tournaments (Portugal, France, Spain) will all be competing for the title again in this fourth edition. Teams that reached the final (Croatia, Netherlands) have also advanced to the knockout rounds this year. There were no significant surprises in League A or the tournament as a whole. The media sensationalized the news that " the world's worst-ranked team, San Marino, earned promotion to the Nations League," when in reality, they topped a group with only two other equally weak opponents from League D: Gibraltar and Liechtenstein!
X A SERIES OF NEW STARS EMERGE
For average teams, this season's Nations League is important because their group stage performance directly (and significantly impacts) their position in the upcoming FIFA rankings (to be announced on November 28th). These rankings are then used to select the seeded teams for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in the European region. These qualifiers consist of 12 groups, with the cruel twist that only the group winners are guaranteed a World Cup spot. Making it onto the list of 12 seeded teams is extremely crucial. Furthermore, the four teams with the best performance in the Nations League (officially announced after the tournament concludes) who don't finish first or second in their World Cup qualifying groups will be awarded a play-off spot. Therefore, it cannot be said that the recent Nations League group stage was unimportant!
Dozens of players have had the opportunity to make their debut for major teams in this season's Nations League. A noteworthy coincidence: the most successful teams are also those that have been most active in experimenting with new players. Spain introduced Aitor Paredes, Marc Casado, Pablo Barrios, and Samu Aghehowa. Germany launched Alexander Nubel, Oliver Baumann, Tim Kleindienst, Angelo Stiller, Jamie Leweling, and Jonathan Burkardt. England had Tino Livramento, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Lewis Hall, Morgan Gibbs-White, Angel Gomes, Curtis Jones, Morgan Rogers, Noni Madueke, and Levi Colwill. Italy had Nicolo Rovella, Niccolo Pisilli, Daniel Maldini, and Marco Brescianini… Also in this season's Nations League, legend was confirmed when Daniel Maldini followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, becoming the first family to have three generations playing for the Italian national team.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bi-quyet-thanh-cong-o-nations-league-185241120230426683.htm
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