The UEFA Nations League 2020/2021 Discussion Thread

[Joca97]

I still dont understand why no body is talking about Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic who scored a het-trick against Sweden today and is still playing at a huge level in worlds football. I still dont understand how he is playing for just Fulham and not some top european club its just a shame

[Distraction]

After seeing the results yesterday I was ready for at least one surprising result today as well. It happened just as many of us expected. But truthfully I was expecting Portugal to stumble rather than Spain. This was unexpected for me. Spain played badly in the first half despite dominating in ball possession. They started to find more opportunities in the second half but Switzerland were still well-prepared for this match. This 2-1 loss caused Spain to lose their lead.

Portugal were much more effective than I expected. They really crushed their opponent by 4-0. I expected Czech Republic to resist them well and score a goal also. They were still fighting for not dropping from the league but their performance today was too bad. Switzerland have pushed them to the last position now. The final week matches will be quite interesting as both of them will be important for different reasons.

[LGD2Business]

There were big surprises in both yesterday and today's matches. I was going to place a bet before the matches started yesterday, but I couldn't catch up, luckily I was late. I didn't expect Germany to be defeated. Hungary played these matches perfectly, but I expected them to lose somewhere. Germany was defeated at home and lost its chance to finish the group leader. If you're losing such an important match, don't be a leader anyway. Italy also took their leadership hopes to the last game by beating England.
Today it was a big surprise for me that Spain lost at home. They lost the lead to Portugal. Switzerland is a good team, but they weren't expected to react like this after losing their first three games of the tournament. They managed to beat both Portugal and Spain. Sure, it's a little late. They don't stand a first place chance in the group at this point.

[LTU_btc]

Nations League shows again why I avoid making big bets on Nations League. There is simply way too many upsets, you don't usually see such results in Qualifiers. Like today - Switzerland beating Spain, Greece loss against Cyprus or Norway loss against Slovenia, despite Haaland scoring.

I still dont understand why no body is talking about Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic who scored a het-trick against Sweden today and is still playing at a huge level in worlds football. I still dont understand how he is playing for just Fulham and not some top european club its just a shame

Good question, maybe it's his agent fault. But unfortunately, he isn't first and not last player doing great at mediacore club and national team, but not getting chance to prove himself at top level.

[shogun47]

We have been repeatedly saying here that the Nations League isn't really representative, but the results are still puzzling to say the least.

Germany losing against Hungary, England losing against Italy which doesn't even participate in Qatar, and now Spain is down 1:2 against Switzerland. I know at those big occasions those teams usually are able to step up their game by a lot, but I wouldn't be surprised if we are going to see some surprising results here and there. Many of the teams have a coule of superstars in the best leagues and in a lucky game the favorites can lose against the underdogs or tie a game or two in the group stage.

The reason for this anomalies might still be that most of the players deem the Nations League slightly more important than a simple friendly game.

  You talk about Italy as if the fact that they don't participate in the World Cup finals makes them a weak team. After all, it is the reigning champion of Europe - the strongest football zone in the world. Well, do not forget about the status of the League of Nations where any result is normal 
By the way, from the last games, I was most surprised by how Portugal destroyed the Czech Republic, I'm glad for those who bet on Portugal - the odds were very good - 1.67.

I am aware of the fact that Italy shouldn't be underestimated, but it still is a poor performance by the English team. Putting this game into the whole context of the Nations League and how it is kind of the preparation for the World Cup, England's results were as bad as it could get. You also send the wrong signal to other teams in terms of weaknesses and vulnerability. Some of the underdogs might have some extra motivation when they know that the big nations can obviously be beaten.

I know that pretty much starts from zero at the actual tournament, but you are also creating a certain atmosphere and mood among the fans. If England gives away the first game at the WC, shit will be hitting the fan and the team will notice. That's why I think that England's performance was not only devastating for the Nations League itself, but also for what it is to come towards the end of this year.

That similarly applies to Germany. I don't see them being spectacularly strong. It seems as if they have the same problem as Bayern Munich against strong defensive teams. Werner was said to be the main striker, but he just doesn't score and especially not against strong opponents.

[karabiber]

France is not performing well in the Nations League and their lack of concentration is very obvious in my opinion. Apart from the lack of concentration the formlessness of star football players also affects them. Maybe the players don't care about the Nations League. Denmark doesn't have much trouble scoring goals but they are losing points with mistakes in defense. I expect the pace of the match to increase from time to time. It could be a scoring game. It will be a match where we will see goals against each other.

[snipie]

Nations League shows again why I avoid making big bets on Nations League. There is simply way too many upsets, you don't usually see such results in Qualifiers. Like today - Switzerland beating Spain, Greece loss against Cyprus or Norway loss against Slovenia, despite Haaland scoring.

The amount of failure while betting in this league since the last year is alarming. I avoid it even if there is a clear favourite playing vs weak team since you never know the winner.
Spain lost vs Switzerland... Expectedly unexpected result in Nation league weirdo ending

quote author=LTU_btc link=topic=5271479.msg61002590#msg61002590 date=1664054611]

I still dont understand why no body is talking about Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic who scored a het-trick against Sweden today and is still playing at a huge level in worlds football. I still dont understand how he is playing for just Fulham and not some top european club its just a shame

Good question, maybe it's his agent fault. But unfortunately, he isn't first and not last player doing great at mediacore club and national team, but not getting chance to prove himself at top level.
[/quote]
World Cup will be his chance to attract attention of everyone if he manage to make Serbia pass the group stage and eventually score at least a goal against Brazil.

[Rruchi man]

Meanwhile, Portugal winning 3-0, and no goals for CR7.

It is not completely a bad thing that Ronaldo did not score in this game, we all know he's not in goal scoring form and just recently got his first to go of the season. The fact that Portugal were able to get three goals even without him being on the scoresheet shows that the team is moving forward from dependence on Ronaldo and with this their new style they will have a good chance at the world cup.

For Switzerland on the other hand it was a very much needed win for them to avoid relegation. I don't know if to say that the Spanish national team did not expect to lose on home ground considering their long record of 22 games undefeated at home, but the Swiss team showed determination and were able to respond as quickly as possible when Spain equalised.

Spain will Play Portugal next, that's a big game!

[D-law]

Meanwhile, Portugal winning 3-0, and no goals for CR7.

It is not completely a bad thing that Ronaldo did not score in this game, we all know he's not in goal scoring form and just recently got his first to go of the season. The fact that Portugal were able to get three goals even without him being on the scoresheet shows that the team is moving forward from dependence on Ronaldo and with this their new style they will have a good chance at the world cup.

For Switzerland on the other hand it was a very much needed win for them to avoid relegation. I don't know if to say that the Spanish national team did not expect to lose on home ground considering their long record of 22 games undefeated at home, but the Swiss team showed determination and were able to respond as quickly as possible when Spain equalised.

Spain will Play Portugal next, that's a big game!

Ronaldo is a good professional player
He has to be back scoring but he failed tonight.
As far as Ronaldo team is winning he reamm happy even

[Harkorede]

Meanwhile, Portugal winning 3-0, and no goals for CR7.

It is not completely a bad thing that Ronaldo did not score in this game, we all know he's not in goal scoring form and just recently got his first to go of the season. The fact that Portugal were able to get three goals even without him being on the scoresheet shows that the team is moving forward from dependence on Ronaldo and with this their new style they will have a good chance at the world cup.

For Switzerland on the other hand it was a very much needed win for them to avoid relegation. I don't know if to say that the Spanish national team did not expect to lose on home ground considering their long record of 22 games undefeated at home, but the Swiss team showed determination and were able to respond as quickly as possible when Spain equalised.

Spain will Play Portugal next, that's a big game!

People actually pay a lot of attention to only Ronaldo's scoring form and/or abilities, to an extent that it doesn't even matter how else he contributes to the entire match, when Ronaldo doesn't score it is always instantly presumed he didn't have a good game, as much as I hate to debate between both Messi and Ronaldo, I believe that's where Messi get's a bit let off because he's game play and impact doesn't have to be about him scoring or making the immediate assist.

I like that Portugal are getting to score that many amount of goals without relying on Ronaldo to be the one scoring about all the goals.

[Majestic-milf]

Meanwhile, Portugal winning 3-0, and no goals for CR7.

It is not completely a bad thing that Ronaldo did not score in this game, we all know he's not in goal scoring form and just recently got his first to go of the season. The fact that Portugal were able to get three goals even without him being on the scoresheet shows that the team is moving forward from dependence on Ronaldo and with this their new style they will have a good chance at the world cup.

For Switzerland on the other hand it was a very much needed win for them to avoid relegation. I don't know if to say that the Spanish national team did not expect to lose on home ground considering their long record of 22 games undefeated at home, but the Swiss team showed determination and were able to respond as quickly as possible when Spain equalised.

Spain will Play Portugal next, that's a big game!

To be honest, l too kinda expected Ronaldo to partake of the goal harvest but I guess it's not completely bad that he had supplied the last assist for the last goal that nailed the Czech republic coffin.
 Quite impressed with their play and display of confidence. Keeping a clean sheets and climbing to be 1st on their group 2 with 10 points to pass Spain with 2 who lost their game.

[Slow death]

There were big surprises in both yesterday and today's matches. I was going to place a bet before the matches started yesterday, but I couldn't catch up, luckily I was late. I didn't expect Germany to be defeated. Hungary played these matches perfectly, but I expected them to lose somewhere. Germany was defeated at home and lost its chance to finish the group leader. If you're losing such an important match, don't be a leader anyway. Italy also took their leadership hopes to the last game by beating England.
Today it was a big surprise for me that Spain lost at home. They lost the lead to Portugal. Switzerland is a good team, but they weren't expected to react like this after losing their first three games of the tournament. They managed to beat both Portugal and Spain. Sure, it's a little late. They don't stand a first place chance in the group at this point.

I believe the main problem is because the best players and the best teams are focused on the world cup, so they will not strive to win these nations league games because they fear injuries just when they are close to the world cup, england for example if they played for real they would clearly win these nations league games, but it is more advantageous for them to lose and save players for the local league games and especially for the world cup games, than to be struggling in win nations league games and get injuries when they know that nations league doesn't even compare to the world cup. these games of the league of nations are like the friendly games, at least in my opinion that is how the big teams are facing these games of the deal of the nations

[GxSTxV]

To be honest, l too kinda expected Ronaldo to partake of the goal harvest but I guess it's not completely bad that he had supplied the last assist for the last goal that nailed the Czech republic coffin.
 Quite impressed with their play and display of confidence. Keeping a clean sheets and climbing to be 1st on their group 2 with 10 points to pass Spain with 2 who lost their game.

I waited more from ronaldo in this match and at least a goal he did a great effort to score but he missed many chances to do. He got hurt at begging of the game and everyone got worried about him but he recovered and continued stronger. He is a real player for me and never give up or show to his teammates that he needs to score so they can all play freely and to not effect them badly. I bet that he will do a good work on this league and even on world cup.
Portugal has even more chances now with this team to make a result and maybe go for the highest  prize, personally i never waited that great playing from Diogo Dalot who scored two goals and played well

[KennyR]

To be honest, l too kinda expected Ronaldo to partake of the goal harvest but I guess it's not completely bad that he had supplied the last assist for the last goal that nailed the Czech republic coffin.
 Quite impressed with their play and display of confidence. Keeping a clean sheets and climbing to be 1st on their group 2 with 10 points to pass Spain with 2 who lost their game.

I waited more from ronaldo in this match and at least a goal he did a great effort to score but he missed many chances to do. He got hurt at begging of the game and everyone got worried about him but he recovered and continued stronger. He is a real player for me and never give up or show to his teammates that he needs to score so they can all play freely and to not effect them badly. I bet that he will do a good work on this league and even on world cup.
Portugal has even more chances now with this team to make a result and maybe go for the highest  prize, personally i never waited that great playing from Diogo Dalot who scored two goals and played well

When the popular one plays good, the rest will give the best following him. This is true with every game. Before the match against Spain, Portugal tops the points table. Both Spain and Portugal being equal in strength meets in the falling week. This match have a big part to decide who gonna top the table. People have big expectation on Portugal to win FIFA. Everything is upon Ronaldo, and lets see what he can do in this league.

[AndySt]

I believe the main problem is because the best players and the best teams are focused on the world cup, so they will not strive to win these nations league games because they fear injuries just when they are close to the world cup, england for example if they played for real they would clearly win these nations league games, but it is more advantageous for them to lose and save players for the local league games and especially for the world cup games, than to be struggling in win nations league games and get injuries when they know that nations league doesn't even compare to the world cup. these games of the league of nations are like the friendly games, at least in my opinion that is how the big teams are facing these games of the deal of the nations

Oh, yes, when there is not so much time left before the start of the World Cup, it is clear that the top national teams really have priority. On the other hand, despite the semi-trivial status of these games for these national teams, one should not forget about the competition and that many players need to prove to their coaches the validity of their claims for a trip to the World Cup. Therefore, the fear of injury by players is not so obvious here. The example of Ronaldo is indicative, who clearly did not try to take care of himself in the match with the Czech national team and smashed his face. Also, where else but at the UEFA Nations League games to try to play the composition and combinations for the upcoming World Cup.

[CLS63]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised for seeing a surprising result last night also. Spain's losing home by 1-2 was very unexpected for me considering that my prediction was a 2-0 win for Spain.    Switzerland benefited from their struggles in the first half and got ahead already. Spain started to pull themselves together in the other half and found the equalizer. But Switzerland were able to answer in only 3 minutes. It was like Switzerland were the favourite and Spain were the underdog. 

Portugal at least didn't surprise anyone by winning. The only surprise might be their getting a too comfortable win by 4-0. Because the previous h2h finished by a 2-0 win for them in a home match. I waited for some resistance from Czech Republic but they were really terrible at making use of the goal chances they found. Their shots on goal rate was like only 20%.

[hahay]

Spain only passed and continued to pass without any finishing that could result in a goal, but it looked like Switzerland did play more aggressively in the first half and Switzerland managed to score a goal in half time. In contrast to Spain, which was difficult to score and even though in the second half Spain played more aggressively, they only managed to score one goal while Switzerland managed to score the second goal. This is a result that Spain did not expect because in the last match Spain will have to play against Portugal, where Portugal is already safely at the top of the table and they only need a draw in the last match later.

[Ratash]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised for seeing a surprising result last night also. Spain's losing home by 1-2 was very unexpected for me considering that my prediction was a 2-0 win for Spain.    Switzerland benefited from their struggles in the first half and got ahead already. Spain started to pull themselves together in the other half and found the equalizer. But Switzerland were able to answer in only 3 minutes. It was like Switzerland were the favourite and Spain were the underdog. 

Portugal at least didn't surprise anyone by winning. The only surprise might be their getting a too comfortable win by 4-0. Because the previous h2h finished by a 2-0 win for them in a home match. I waited for some resistance from Czech Republic but they were really terrible at making use of the goal chances they found. Their shots on goal rate was like only 20%.

After Seeing spain line up i was not surprised by the result, it seems that only embers remain from spain 2010 team that was feared by all, both their defense and attack are weak playing with three forwards that didn't play more than half a game with their respective teams shows that enrique is out of options and does not trust the squad he has, now with all these young players spaun team need time so they can build a good team again.

[Jatiluhung]

Spain only passed and continued to pass without any finishing that could result in a goal, but it looked like Switzerland did play more aggressively in the first half and Switzerland managed to score a goal in half time. In contrast to Spain, which was difficult to score and even though in the second half Spain played more aggressively, they only managed to score one goal while Switzerland managed to score the second goal. This is a result that Spain did not expect because in the last match Spain will have to play against Portugal, where Portugal is already safely at the top of the table and they only need a draw in the last match later.

before the start of the match i had bet and was sure that spain would win. but it turns out my prediction was far wrong. Even though during the match, most of the possession of the ball was controlled by Spain, but it was useless. if it turns out they can't attack effectively. and Switzerland could even take advantage of their meager opportunities. attack effectiveness is needed. and Switzerland has it. Well, in the next match, Spain will fight Portugal. and Portugal will be more comfortable in the match. and Spain have to fight harder.

[D-law]

Spain only passed and continued to pass without any finishing that could result in a goal, but it looked like Switzerland did play more aggressively in the first half and Switzerland managed to score a goal in half time. In contrast to Spain, which was difficult to score and even though in the second half Spain played more aggressively, they only managed to score one goal while Switzerland managed to score the second goal. This is a result that Spain did not expect because in the last match Spain will have to play against Portugal, where Portugal is already safely at the top of the table and they only need a draw in the last match later.

With the win from Portugal and Loss of Spain they will have to face tmthier selves of Tuesday
Portugal will still want to impress the game. They scored four again Czech republic with Patrick Schick missing to score from penalty spot. Diego Dalot was seen scoring his first Portugal goal by getting a br are last night