⚽ UEFA Nations League ⚽ - Discussion Thread

[Jaycoinz]

The Italians are already losing to Belgium by 0:1 at halftime. Seems like Italy long term spell has not been lifted and I keep wondering if the players are the problem or the coach. As much as i can remember, Italy has hired about 4 coaches in the last 10 years but none of them has really been able to deliver the team from their misfortune. Is it that the national team doesn't have quality players in the squad anymore or the coaches have not identified the best strategy and formation to use for the team. I could remember the performance of Italy at the 2006 World Cup, i think after that performance that was when Italy started underperforming till date.

2006 to 2026 is a long time now. This is exactly what happens when people don’t look beyond their present and plan for the future. They failed to groom their young players to make sure they always have a competitive team. Recently we saw the changes in the management of Italian football federation, lots of changes were made at the management level, that is a good sign of rebuilding. However it will take them some time to actually get what they want. So anyone expecting immediate success on the team performance is demanding too much from them.

Italy is gone mate,

It's just crazy that there use to be a time when the entire Italian squad use to filled with so many super star ⭐ players but now look at the current squad, I mean it's filled with so many amateur players and they are finding it so hard to even make any impact in their game plaz and performance and just like you said it's not even a matter of coach anymore as it's all the players as there are no top players to make that team thrive in the top football stages.

[Uhde]

I think turkey has improved from what they were at this year's world cup, there is something different about this Turkish team that we did not see in the world cup.
France has been good too but they haven't created a clinical chance at goal, Chieki, Dembele, olise and Mbappe has been sharp so more of the same from both teams but I believe at the end of the game France should be the winner.

You are right but they are against an indisputable country so they have know chance for victory but I must admit their defense is nice and they have intercepted a lot of goals France would have gotten by now. Meanwhile i think Mbappe has gotten injury in this match, he was substituted because of it and from my observation, it seems very serious and if is confirmed so then Real Madrid is going to be in big trouble on the both league because the club is not much strong without him. I'm glad Mbappe had score one goal before leaving if not I wonder how it would have been since there has not been another goal yet.

despite being eliminated from the World Cup due to their poor performance, Turkey actually haven't made any changes to their squad or playstyle...
They are still playing the exact same way and hoping to win. players who perform well in top European leagues, like Ferdi and Can Uzun simply disappear in these kinds of matches. and unfortunately Turkey doesn't have a player who can change the flow of the game either.

[Abu-Naim]

France really should have scored 2 or 3 goals in the first half. I expect the French to score an early goal in the second half and they’ll probably score a second goal in the final minutes.

I don’t see Turkey scoring a goal, they’ve had a couple of chances but they don’t have a player who can finish.

If it happens that France lost this game, the topic of discussion will be about France losing this match, not scoring enough goals will not be the case because get lost, but now that they scored just one goal, some football fans are not happy maybe because they bet on France to score at least two goals since they have Mbappe, Olise, and other key players, but unfortunately, they could not score more than one goal.

I personally did not expect more from France today because they have new coach, and he and the players need to adapt to each others and train together before they can perform better, yet they did their best to win the match.

[Lillominato89]

The Italians are already losing to Belgium by 0:1 at halftime. Seems like Italy long term spell has not been lifted and I keep wondering if the players are the problem or the coach. As much as i can remember, Italy has hired about 4 coaches in the last 10 years but none of them has really been able to deliver the team from their misfortune. Is it that the national team doesn't have quality players in the squad anymore or the coaches have not identified the best strategy and formation to use for the team. I could remember the performance of Italy at the 2006 World Cup, i think after that performance that was when Italy started underperforming till date.

2006 to 2026 is a long time now. This is exactly what happens when people don’t look beyond their present and plan for the future. They failed to groom their young players to make sure they always have a competitive team. Recently we saw the changes in the management of Italian football federation, lots of changes were made at the management level, that is a good sign of rebuilding. However it will take them some time to actually get what they want. So anyone expecting immediate success on the team performance is demanding too much from them.

Italy is gone mate,

It's just crazy that there use to be a time when the entire Italian squad use to filled with so many super star ⭐ players but now look at the current squad, I mean it's filled with so many amateur players and they are finding it so hard to even make any impact in their game plaz and performance and just like you said it's not even a matter of coach anymore as it's all the players as there are no top players to make that team thrive in the top football stages.

I can assure you that it’s all the FIGC’s fault.
It has never wanted to force Serie A clubs to invest in young Italian footballers.
The last Italian talents were Donnarumma as a goalkeeper and Mario Balotelli as a striker; after that, there’s nothing.
As an Italian, I’m truly disheartened; we used to be a national team envied by half the world, but now the situation has been turned on its head and we’re the ones envying even the Cape Verde national team.
Endless sadness!
We could change the manager every year, but it wouldn’t change a thing; unfortunately, the problem lies at the root.

[Taricoins]

despite being eliminated from the World Cup due to their poor performance, Turkey actually haven't made any changes to their squad or playstyle...
They are still playing the exact same way and hoping to win. players who perform well in top European leagues, like Ferdi and Can Uzun simply disappear in these kinds of matches. and unfortunately Turkey doesn't have a player who can change the flow of the game either.

I think we expect too much from Turkey,  by the way the World Cup was just some weeks ago and it doesn't really help that they got stuck playing a team like France which offensive play is on another level. Looking at the result, they even did okay defensively since they allowed only one goal slip in, under better circumstances they will try better and even dominate

[MK-74]

First of all I want to congratulate Türkiye because of the fight they put up against France, I thought we would lose by a much bigger score but we only lost 1-0. Even though we were down to 10 men in the final minutes, we were actually the side creating more attacks.
It was a good match. The only bad thing was Uğur Can Çakır getting a red card.

[Agathamay]

First of all I want to congratulate Türkiye because of the fight they put up against France, I thought we would lose by a much bigger score but we only lost 1-0. Even though we were down to 10 men in the final minutes, we were actually the side creating more attacks.
It was a good match. The only bad thing was Uğur Can Çakır getting a red card.

Türkiye with red card or not, they were the better team because they controlled the game although they find it challenging to put the ball at the back of the net. Did you watch the game? I can't help but noticed Arda Guler. He was so brilliant for the Türkiye side, always finding chances to create and convert, a player like Arda Guler is very important for Türkiye if only they want to advance far and win games.

France on the other hand didn't relent and they were clinical with their chances with Kylian Mbappe banging a goal for his side before picking up an injury. This is outrageous because Mbappe is the main player when it comes to goal scoring, he knows how to carry out his role effectively much more than Ousmane Dembele. Fair result for both countries and the best county went home with solid 3 points.

[LGD2Business]

Many people thought Türkiye would concede more goals against France. Fortunately, France only scored 1 goal. Türkiye also had some missed scoring opportunities. But it's clear that they can't make any progress with a style of play that lacks a striker. It's absolutely ridiculous that Montella is still in charge of this team. He should have been fired after the World Cup.
If France had needed goals, they would have scored more. They won with just 1 goal. I also thought they'd win, so I bet on them at 1.35 odds in Jack. The odds for France to score at least 3 goals were 1.97, I considered it, but I didn't take that risk because I didn't think France would push that hard. In the end I was right. French players finished the match without breaking a sweat. They played at a very slow pace and are heading home with 3 points.

[pawel7777]

A minimal win for France, but Turkey can be happy with their performance. Both teams made the exact same numbers of shots on goal and shots on target (10 and 5 respectively for each team), but France dominated in possession though.
The red card for Turkey was almost at the end of the game, so didn't have much impact on the game, except it made it harder for Turkey to equalise.

Sweden was also a big favourite. They delivered a win but it was also a minimal one (2-1) and the game was fairly even. In the same group. Poland was a bit of a disappointment as they couldn't score a single goal and the best they could do against Bosnia was a goalless draw.

[Agbam]

The Italians are already losing to Belgium by 0:1 at halftime. Seems like Italy long term spell has not been lifted and I keep wondering if the players are the problem or the coach. As much as i can remember, Italy has hired about 4 coaches in the last 10 years but none of them has really been able to deliver the team from their misfortune. Is it that the national team doesn't have quality players in the squad anymore or the coaches have not identified the best strategy and formation to use for the team. I could remember the performance of Italy at the 2006 World Cup, i think after that performance that was when Italy started underperforming till date.

2006 to 2026 is a long time now. This is exactly what happens when people don’t look beyond their present and plan for the future. They failed to groom their young players to make sure they always have a competitive team. Recently we saw the changes in the management of Italian football federation, lots of changes were made at the management level, that is a good sign of rebuilding. However it will take them some time to actually get what they want. So anyone expecting immediate success on the team performance is demanding too much from them.

Italy is gone mate,

It's just crazy that there use to be a time when the entire Italian squad use to filled with so many super star ⭐ players but now look at the current squad, I mean it's filled with so many amateur players and they are finding it so hard to even make any impact in their game plaz and performance and just like you said it's not even a matter of coach anymore as it's all the players as there are no top players to make that team thrive in the top football stages.

What could be the problem with Italy, is it that they’re discovering good quality players or the ones they have are not just performing up to standards. There used to be a time when the likes of Gianluca Scamaca and Raspadori used to be red hot but they’re just mid players right now.
The whole team is just a mess, but if they come together as a team I think they’ll be able to cause damage.

I was also hoping Mancini would do better with this team he assembled today but it was a poor outing. I’m still hoping he does better.
Most of the games today ended in 1:0

[red4slash]

Italy is gone mate,

It's just crazy that there use to be a time when the entire Italian squad use to filled with so many super star ⭐ players but now look at the current squad, I mean it's filled with so many amateur players and they are finding it so hard to even make any impact in their game plaz and performance and just like you said it's not even a matter of coach anymore as it's all the players as there are no top players to make that team thrive in the top football stages.

The transition of young players they do is still not entirely going well even though looking at the squad they bring in, in fact, their players look good in terms of popularity but when combined in 1 team they seem to be unable to do much.

In this match even Donnarumma had to try extra because the Italian defenders did not play well even though their ball possession looked pretty good but their chemistry was really bad.
In addition, Italy's problems for the attacking line seem to be quite severe even though Belgium also in this match did not play well (at least compared to the previous few periods Belgium was also in decline) but they looked to play much better than Italy.
The first match ended badly and Italy should have started to work harder with their current situation.

[Cryptoprincess101]

Italy performance continues to deteriorate, it is obvious that no coach can save the team except themselves. The Italian national team squad is filled with incompetent players who gives low to no efforts to see the team progressing. Look how they lost 0:2 to Belgium, it if was far back Italian team that we used to know there's no way Belgium would have won them. This is far away from being a coaching problem, the Italian football body has to reshuffle the team and fish out quality players across the different leagues and make a great squad once again because if they continue with this kind of performance, they might miss out in the next world cup again.

First of all I want to congratulate Türkiye because of the fight they put up against France, I thought we would lose by a much bigger score but we only lost 1-0. Even though we were down to 10 men in the final minutes, we were actually the side creating more attacks.
It was a good match. The only bad thing was Uğur Can Çakır getting a red card.

I was actually surprised by the kind of resistance I saw in the Turkish national team because they gave France a hard match. Prior to the match, i was predicting France to win Turkey by upto 4 goals but when the match started and France couldn't score in the first half, i became so impressed by Turkey performance. It's sad that Turkey got a red card towards the die minutes but they still made sure not to concede any more goals.

[Ahli38]

An unexpected result came from the Italy vs. Belgium national team match. I had noticed that Italy seemed to be the favorite in that match. The odds for Italy to win were around 2. But the final result of the match was far from what was predicted with the final score ending up at 0-2. This was a nightmare start for Roberto Mancini one that will continue to haunt him in future matches. And he’ll have to think hard to deliver a performance that isn’t too disappointing in the next round. Next Italy will face Turkey in a few days in Round 2 of League A. If Italy is also unable to produce a satisfactory result against a national team ranked below them in the FIFA rankings, where it will cast doubt on Italy’s prospects moving forward. Italian national team hopefully won’t disappoint again in this upcoming match. I personally checked the betting odds before this match that just ended began. But I was hesitant because Belgium is also a team that can’t be underestimated which made me not very interested in following it.

[MK-74]

First of all I want to congratulate Türkiye because of the fight they put up against France, I thought we would lose by a much bigger score but we only lost 1-0. Even though we were down to 10 men in the final minutes, we were actually the side creating more attacks.
It was a good match. The only bad thing was Uğur Can Çakır getting a red card.

I was actually surprised by the kind of resistance I saw in the Turkish national team because they gave France a hard match. Prior to the match, i was predicting France to win Turkey by upto 4 goals but when the match started and France couldn't score in the first half, i became so impressed by Turkey performance. It's sad that Turkey got a red card towards the die minutes but they still made sure not to concede any more goals.

I definitely agree, i wasn't expecting this kind of resistance either, i also thought we would lose by 2-3 goals, we even put more pressure on them after the red card but we couldn't find a goal.

First of all I want to congratulate Türkiye because of the fight they put up against France, I thought we would lose by a much bigger score but we only lost 1-0. Even though we were down to 10 men in the final minutes, we were actually the side creating more attacks.
It was a good match. The only bad thing was Uğur Can Çakır getting a red card.

Türkiye with red card or not, they were the better team because they controlled the game although they find it challenging to put the ball at the back of the net. Did you watch the game? I can't help but noticed Arda Guler. He was so brilliant for the Türkiye side, always finding chances to create and convert, a player like Arda Guler is very important for Türkiye if only they want to advance far and win games.

Arda Güler is our superstar and a really quality player, i also watch him at Real Madrid and his touches on the game are really good.
He could be even better at Real Madrid but I think the other players in the team are the problem, he also played very well tonight.

[Iamgoat]

Ronaldo has been past his prime for quite some time now. But I don't know if Portugal have an alternative to replace him in the national team. Most likely, Goncalo Ramos is the main candidate to replace Ronaldo. I wouldn't consider Leao, Neto or Conceicao for that role. Ronaldo has aged as a footballer, but even at his age, I don't see a replacement for him in Portugal.

Someone who will replace Ronaldo? I don’t think there’s any single player in Portugal now or even in the couple of years to come. Ronaldo is not your regular footballer. He is a world class player and one of his kind. Finding Ronaldo’s match in the entire Europe who are more like the kings or empire of modern football aside from Messsi now will be difficult talk less of in Portugal. As for Ramos, I think the Hat Trick which he was able to pull during the match against Switzerland when he was used to substitute Ronaldo at the 2022 World Cup has remain a good mark for him as a player but he shouldn’t make such a mistake that he wants to replace Roaldo. I don’t think there’s any new players in the world now which can take the places of Ronaldo and Messi in the contemporary football of today

[nelson4lov]

Turkey... I don't trust them enough to think they can cause an upset tomorrow. I expect France to win comfortably tomorrow by a 2-3 goal margin.

When you see a team that’s going to cause France trouble won’t you know? With due respect to Turkish national team, but even if France decide to field their second eleven, they will win Turkey. The French team will play their first match under Zidane their new manager. So expect the players to be on their best performance as they will aim to impress the new coach. Also Zidane will want to win his first game as head coach of the team. Anyhow you look at the match, it is not looking good for Turkey team.

I knew with some level of certainty that France would win, but I didn't want to eliminate the possibility of an upset, which is why I said what I said. I missed the match as I was sleeping at the time, but I saw from the stats that it was a close game.

It’s also good that Italy is back, as they missed out on the world cup. But I'm going to trust Belgium to come through.

Be weary of this wounded Italian team, so much has been said about this team about their inability to qualify for the World Cup. They are rebuilding seriously so, I’m not sure if they will want things to continue going wrong for them without responding. Something is telling me that Belgium will have the taste of the new refurbished Italian team.

I like Italy when they used to be a heavyweight. I thought today they would start something and maybe give us a glimpse of the old Italian team but I was wrong. It would take a lot longer for them to get their rebuilding efforts on track and back to winning ways.

[Jostern]

First of all I want to congratulate Türkiye because of the fight they put up against France, I thought we would lose by a much bigger score but we only lost 1-0. Even though we were down to 10 men in the final minutes, we were actually the side creating more attacks.
It was a good match. The only bad thing was Uğur Can Çakır getting a red card.

Good game, and I must say it wasn’t a very good game for the Turkish Men, anyways I didn’t watch the game but I was following everything that was happening in the game, the Red card was an obvious red card but we can call it a mistake and nothing intentional, France was always going to win this game no matter how Turkey performed because they’re not a commanding force in Europe anymore, but considering the way they performed at the World Cup, I must say the result tonight was a very good one for them, and there is rooms for improvement for them, and also France who have a new manager in Zinedine Zidane.

[Joeboy]

Arda Güler is our superstar and a really quality player, i also watch him at Real Madrid and his touches on the game are really good.
He could be even better at Real Madrid but I think the other players in the team are the problem, he also played very well tonight.

Guler is so underrated and it is probably becoming of him being surrounded by big names in his club...Ever since I watched him score that well placed free kick goal at the UCL that almost made poor Neuer lose a tooth  I actually had to stop belittling the guy...He really performed so well, I think he was even the best man in his team.. I really wish his team mate gave in their very best like he did then probably we would have seen a draw... A team like France though always have a way of pulling through and delivering an exceptional performance... With the likes of Mbappe and others, I sort of expected more goals especially after the red card was given, but then it was only 1 they could come up with .. Anyways still congratulations to them coz their win still won them their 3points..

[LTU_btc]

Ukraine got win against Hungary away. In recent years they were underperforming, despite having good squad. But maybe now with new coach Maldera they will do better

Nevertheless, bookmakers view Italy as the favorite:

2.18 - 3.55 - 3.15

Perhaps they are factoring in the home-field advantage, but the imbalance is too pronounced in my view, so far, Italy has done nothing to back up its ambitions. The Both Teams to Score bet looks so obvious that even odds of 1.54 seem attractive, however, if I were putting money on this game, I’d take a risk and bet on Belgium or on Belgium (Double Chance). 1.67 looks solid. I wonder if Türkiye will be able to take points from France in the parallel game.

It was just sad to watch Italy, after 1st half they got booed by their own fans. It wasn't even about the score. They let Belgium to dominate completely. They entered into 2nd half much better, but 2nd goal of Belgium killed them completely.

[Smartvirus]

An unexpected result came from the Italy vs. Belgium national team match. I had noticed that Italy seemed to be the favorite in that match. The odds for Italy to win were around 2. But the final result of the match was far from what was predicted with the final score ending up at 0-2. This was a nightmare start for Roberto Mancini one that will continue to haunt him in future matches.

Let’s face it, Belgium isn’t exactly a small team, they are an elite team but they weren’t the favorites in this game for sure, that was a spot for Italy but somehow, I expected Belgium to get a good result in this game.
They surprisingly played a a strong attacking football today, didn’t expect that much of them but they did, they found a way to put Italy under pressure, had over 8 shots on target and 8 corners while not giving Italy much opportunity to get back at them especially in the first half, it was a good game for Belgium.