⚽ UEFA Nations League ⚽ - Discussion Thread

[Grave Digger]

The Portugal best player of all time was on the bench.

Portugal defeated Norway 2-1, but Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t play a single minute.

The captain.The all-time record goalscorer.
A player who can still change a game in an instant.

Portugal got the three points, but leaving CR7 on the bench for the entire match is a decision that will spark plenty of debate among football fans.

🤔 Was it the right call, or should Ronaldo have been given a chance?

[kizilhare]

Our biggest mistake was underestimating the opponent. Everyone we asked predicted a Turkish victory, but that didn't happen. Once Italy made it 3-0 in the first half, the match was effectively over for us.
The scoreline was largely due to numerous individual errors by the Turkish players. Altay inspired no confidence in goal; he spilled shots, and one of Italy's goals came as a result of this.
It was a bad day for Turkey. We will most likely be relegated to the lower league.

imo Turkey is in desperate need of a major overhaul much like Belgium did back in the day...
after 2002, Belgium failed to qualify for the World Cup for 12 years. during that time, they invested heavily in their youth academies and the next generation. and they spent around two years strictly drilling a back three system. at the endthey knocked out Japan and Brazil in the tournament and could reach to semifinals.

teams of Turkey's caliber need to think long term like this and focus on developing themselves first.

Every twenty years, Turkey produces a generation that qualifies for the World Cup or the European Championship. That generation's era is now drawing to a close, but the real issue in Türkiye is poor squad selection. People are now questioning why Berke Özer hasn't been called up—though if we had won yesterday, no one would be asking where Berke is.
Yesterday, Salih and Orkun had a terrible game in midfield.
Altay was very poor again.
It was a bad defeat for us.

[satscraper]

The Portugal best player of all time was on the bench.

Portugal defeated Norway 2-1, but Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t play a single minute.

The captain.The all-time record goalscorer.
A player who can still change a game in an instant.

Portugal got the three points, but leaving CR7 on the bench for the entire match is a decision that will spark plenty of debate among football fans.

🤔 Was it the right call, or should Ronaldo have been given a chance?

The skills of the best Portuguese player are not  disputable, but he is not young, and I believe his time is coming to an end. So ^{in my view} the decision to have him on the bench and test substitutes that could replace him in the near future was the right call. 25 years old Goncalo Ramos could be the answer.

[Daniel91]

The Portugal best player of all time was on the bench.

Portugal defeated Norway 2-1, but Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t play a single minute.

The captain.The all-time record goalscorer.
A player who can still change a game in an instant.

Portugal got the three points, but leaving CR7 on the bench for the entire match is a decision that will spark plenty of debate among football fans.

🤔 Was it the right call, or should Ronaldo have been given a chance?

I can see that you are a big Ronaldo fan and I agree with you that Ronaldo is a great footballer but biology and age are working against him.
Ronaldo was born on February 5, 1985 which means that he is now 41 years old.
Until when, in your opinion, should Ronaldo play? Until he turns 50 or 60?  
Ronaldo is no longer as fast as he used to be, he is no longer as effective in attack, and he does not play defense so he is always a player less for his team.
Realistically, Ronaldo is a great player who has not yet realized that his time has passed.
The fact is that Portugal plays better without Ronaldo in the team, which was also evident in their last match.
Yesterday we generally saw the expected results, except that probably few fans expected such a convincing victory by Italy in the always difficult away game in Turkey.
Is this a sign that Italy is recovering from its crisis?
Bosnia was very convincing away against Romania, which was also not expected.
Today, the most interesting match will be between Spain and Croatia, and although the Spaniards are the favorites, I think they will face a tough match against the Croats.

[Pokapoka124]

Another win for France, but yet again, just like the game against Turkey, it was far from convincing. And just like the game against Turkey, France won with a minimal 1-0 score. The winning goal against Belgium was scored by Olise 2 minutes before the end of regular time.
So, despite their 6 points, France is somewhat disappointing, or maybe it's just that the expectations for them are set very high.

I was almost getting settled on a draw for the Belgium vs France fixture. Didn’t expect the game to go above 70minutes without a goal but, even at the 80th minute we were yet to see a goal until we had a Manchester city and Bayern Munich special, creating such an important goal for the French side.

I was confident that France would either win or draw the match, nevertheless it was always going to be a hard fought match and a narrow win. I had great hope when Cherki and Olise came on as subs, I didn’t think Cherki would be that bad. Luckily for me, all my bets were green yesterday.

[Sexylizzy2813]

The Portugal best player of all time was on the bench.

Portugal defeated Norway 2-1, but Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t play a single minute.

The captain.The all-time record goalscorer.
A player who can still change a game in an instant.

Portugal got the three points, but leaving CR7 on the bench for the entire match is a decision that will spark plenty of debate among football fans.

🤔 Was it the right call, or should Ronaldo have been given a chance?

This is funny, Portugal won the game and even played more better football the night they won Norway and you think with Ronaldo in the game they would have done better? Hell no, this is one of the best decision coming from the Portugal manager and if it was Martinez the former manager he would have played him every minute of that game, before you get me wrong, keeping Ronaldo on the bench gives other younger players time to shine too, like Ramos the striker, he did very well in that game and if he keeps on playing I believe his confidence in the national team will grow positively. Ronaldo or should I say his fans need to understand that his time is up, someone who is at his retirement stage need to set an example even pave way for the younger generation to step up and make the national team more stronger than it has been when he was younger so this decision is the best for me, let him sit on the bench in the next game and come in from the 70th minute of the game, by then the other players might have weaken their opponent very well for him (Ronaldo) to do his thing.

[Hypnotizer]

I don't think we have seen the last of Jurgen Klopp, I just think this UEFA's Nation league qualification is just a playing ground to him, that's what I want to believe because from the squad he is using  and how it feels like he isn't taking it serious, I just think that he is cooking something dangerous.

As fir Zidane, Olise just saved him today as he too was experimenting, he is trying to plug that defensive hole France has and that Belgium was a practice run, imagine bringing in his creative players in the 80th minutes, this coaches are just playing.

Klopp is probably experimenting with this Nations League matches, his starting lineup was very different in the game against Greece. It seems like he’s starting some new players to test them and see what they can offer.  He also go notable injuries in the squad, so yeah it’s too early to say anything about his performance as Germany’s head coach.

Exactly. I was kinda shocked when I saw his starting lineup also, against a team like Belgium that lineup looks like an experiment rather than a lineup for victory.

~
🤔 Was it the right call, or should Ronaldo have been given a chance?

That decision by the coach was probably the best, Ramos was very effective in that game and they missed fewer big chances in the match. Portugal needs to start working on Ronaldo’s replacement and If he isn’t benched to give Ramos or other the opportunity they might find it difficult to replace him if he retires.

[Uhde]

Our biggest mistake was underestimating the opponent. Everyone we asked predicted a Turkish victory, but that didn't happen. Once Italy made it 3-0 in the first half, the match was effectively over for us.
The scoreline was largely due to numerous individual errors by the Turkish players. Altay inspired no confidence in goal; he spilled shots, and one of Italy's goals came as a result of this.
It was a bad day for Turkey. We will most likely be relegated to the lower league.

imo Turkey is in desperate need of a major overhaul much like Belgium did back in the day...
after 2002, Belgium failed to qualify for the World Cup for 12 years. during that time, they invested heavily in their youth academies and the next generation. and they spent around two years strictly drilling a back three system. at the endthey knocked out Japan and Brazil in the tournament and could reach to semifinals.

teams of Turkey's caliber need to think long term like this and focus on developing themselves first.

Every twenty years, Turkey produces a generation that qualifies for the World Cup or the European Championship. That generation's era is now drawing to a close, but the real issue in Türkiye is poor squad selection. People are now questioning why Berke Özer hasn't been called up—though if we had won yesterday, no one would be asking where Berke is.
Yesterday, Salih and Orkun had a terrible game in midfield.
Altay was very poor again.
It was a bad defeat for us.

yes and the mindset of let a miracle kid pop up every generation to save us is completely flawed.
imo in football, if you don't possess that African athletic gene pool, the only way to succeed with a Mediterranean genetic profile is to build a rigid, flawless organization.
unless a football philosophy built on physicality, tempo, athleticism, data analysis and tactical discipline is established, any success achieved is purely coincidental...

[Tmoonz]

Our biggest mistake was underestimating the opponent. Everyone we asked predicted a Turkish victory, but that didn't happen. Once Italy made it 3-0 in the first half, the match was effectively over for us.
The scoreline was largely due to numerous individual errors by the Turkish players. Altay inspired no confidence in goal; he spilled shots, and one of Italy's goals came as a result of this.
It was a bad day for Turkey. We will most likely be relegated to the lower league.

imo Turkey is in desperate need of a major overhaul much like Belgium did back in the day...
after 2002, Belgium failed to qualify for the World Cup for 12 years. during that time, they invested heavily in their youth academies and the next generation. and they spent around two years strictly drilling a back three system. at the endthey knocked out Japan and Brazil in the tournament and could reach to semifinals.

teams of Turkey's caliber need to think long term like this and focus on developing themselves first.

Every twenty years, Turkey produces a generation that qualifies for the World Cup or the European Championship. That generation's era is now drawing to a close, but the real issue in Türkiye is poor squad selection. People are now questioning why Berke Özer hasn't been called up—though if we had won yesterday, no one would be asking where Berke is.
Yesterday, Salih and Orkun had a terrible game in midfield.
Altay was very poor again.
It was a bad defeat for us.

I actually predicted Italy winning on that game, I don't know how people analyze football now, the Turkish national team is strong yes no doubt, but you can't compare them to that is the Italian national team, the odds was in favor of Turkey but when I looked back I get to understand that, in years past Turkey was not a match for Italy, then I looked at their current form, I still noticed Italy was quite in a better form than they are, so I picked Italy winning on that game, though it was Ukraine that actually cut the ticket, because I equally predicted them winning over Georgia.

[AprilioMP]

Germany isn’t as bad as it seems, even though they lost to Greece. Klopp is doing something that will make this squad more solid going forward. He’s testing out several new players who seem different from the Nagelsmann-era squad. The current German squad is very different in terms of its players, and Klopp has already explained what he’s doing: if you want to criticize, direct your criticism at him—not at the new players who are projected to develop, as reported by Fabrizio Romano. I support that.

Bastian Schweinsteiger disagrees with you, he says Germany is now just an ordinary team and they are. Granted, the individual quality hasn't completely vanished, but the team's overall level and approach are a far cry from the Germany of the past. It is quite clear that German football is in need of restructuring and significant change.

About 17 hours ago, Bastian Schweinsteiger posted a tweet on his X account @BSchweinsteiger—not a scathing critique, but a way of showing that he cares about the German national team. A new era for German soccer. Not perfect yet, but full of energy and belief 🇩🇪

📸: DFB/Philipp Reinhard.
Klopp has only had two matches so far. The first ended in a draw, and the second was a loss. This isn’t a sufficient benchmark to judge Klopp, so I still believe that Germany is currently in a new era, thanks to the development of the new players he’s building.

[Sticky Bomb]

🤔 Was it the right call, or should Ronaldo have been given a chance?

I can see that you are a big Ronaldo fan and I agree with you that Ronaldo is a great footballer but biology and age are working against him.
Ronaldo was born on February 5, 1985 which means that he is now 41 years old.
Until when, in your opinion, should Ronaldo play? Until he turns 50 or 60?  
Ronaldo is no longer as fast as he used to be, he is no longer as effective in attack, and he does not play defense so he is always a player less for his team.
Realistically, Ronaldo is a great player who has not yet realized that his time has passed.
The fact is that Portugal plays better without Ronaldo in the team, which was also evident in their last match.

I think it is right for Ronaldo to retire from international duties, or maybe be coming in as a super sub. G. Ramos is a better option now, he's faster and more adaptive to the game since he's more younger and more energetic. Ronaldo is a great player, he brings good leadership and experience to the team, but age is telling on him now and he has to admit it. The coach made the right call by not adding him to the starting XI. Whether we believe it or not, his exclusion was instrumental to the victory. He is an idol and would be remembered, but his glory days are over, he may want to go into coaching now.

Meanwhile, I like your merit count, reminds me of an important year in my existence .

[Son Of Blockchain (SOB)]

About 17 hours ago, Bastian Schweinsteiger posted a tweet on his X account @BSchweinsteiger—not a scathing critique, but a way of showing that he cares about the German national team. A new era for German soccer. Not perfect yet, but full of energy and belief 🇩🇪

📸: DFB/Philipp Reinhard.
Klopp has only had two matches so far. The first ended in a draw, and the second was a loss. This isn’t a sufficient benchmark to judge Klopp, so I still believe that Germany is currently in a new era, thanks to the development of the new players he’s building.

Klopp is a manager with a good record managing different football clubs so i don't doubt his competence, this is a new phase of his career and one thing about such situation is that it might not start well but might get better going forward, he's a good coach and just like Schweinsteiger tweeted, he has the quality to take the German team forward.
 Although people might be disappointed at the results and based on his personality it's normal for expectations to be high but they should give him time to organise the team, i believe they'll do better with time.

[KingsDen]

Every twenty years, Turkey produces a generation that qualifies for the World Cup or the European Championship. That generation's era is now drawing to a close, but the real issue in Türkiye is poor squad selection. People are now questioning why Berke Özer hasn't been called up—though if we had won yesterday, no one would be asking where Berke is.
Yesterday, Salih and Orkun had a terrible game in midfield.
Altay was very poor again.
It was a bad defeat for us.

It was a very poor performance from Turkey yesterday, I couldn't believe my eyes seeing them losing 3–0 in the first half. Let's not forget that the captain Hakan Çalhanoglu and Kenan Yildiz were injured, and these are two key players for Turkey who would have impacted the game positively. Despite these two players being out, I didn't expect Turkey to be so easy to beat. Altay Bayindir has still not improved, now I see why he's not getting any playing time in Manchester United.

I honestly don't know what the manager was thinking when he selected the goal keeper over Berke Özer who's a regular starter in his team in Ligue 1,  and he's also in good form. He rather  settled for a second choice goal keeper who is yet to improve. I'm sure that if Özer or Ugurcan were in the goal post, such score line wouldn't exist. Even Mert Günok at his age wouldn't perform so poor like this. I think you're right, The Turkey team is poor when it comes to squad selection.

[Yabani]

I watched the highlights of the Belgium-France match. France dominated the game from start to finish, but had Belgium converted the chances they created in the final 15 minutes, the French would have left the pitch defeated. Olise came off the bench and scored in the 88th minute with a magnificent side-footed shot—his signature finish—securing a 1–0 away victory for France and taking them to the top of the group.
France has a very poor conversion rate when it comes to turning chances into goals. Zidane needs to find a solution to this issue. France has excellent players, but they struggle significantly because they fail to function as a cohesive team.

[Abbatty]

I watched the highlights of the Belgium-France match. France dominated the game from start to finish, but had Belgium converted the chances they created in the final 15 minutes, the French would have left the pitch defeated. Olise came off the bench and scored in the 88th minute with a magnificent side-footed shot—his signature finish—securing a 1–0 away victory for France and taking them to the top of the group.
France has a very poor conversion rate when it comes to turning chances into goals. Zidane needs to find a solution to this issue. France has excellent players, but they struggle significantly because they fail to function as a cohesive team.

With Mbappe out injured it was kind of certain that we were not going to much goals in that game yesterday, it took an individual brilliance from Olise to get the winner for France yesterday. France dominated very well and if Olise had started in that game yesterday we would have seen much goals, he is a good goal scorer and also good in creating big chances.

It 2 wins in 2 games for Zidane, the team looks better yesterday, they just didn’t convert the chances they had, on a good day France could have scored 3 goals or more. Olise is a very important player for France currently, they can’t afford to see him injured right now.

[Pablo-wood]

I watched the highlights of the Belgium-France match. France dominated the game from start to finish, but had Belgium converted the chances they created in the final 15 minutes, the French would have left the pitch defeated. Olise came off the bench and scored in the 88th minute with a magnificent side-footed shot—his signature finish—securing a 1–0 away victory for France and taking them to the top of the group.
France has a very poor conversion rate when it comes to turning chances into goals. Zidane needs to find a solution to this issue. France has excellent players, but they struggle significantly because they fail to function as a cohesive team.

Belgium made a total of 10 shots with two on target. Whereas France dominated and even created enough chances but only one got converted to goal. I was thinking KDB would have managed the midfield and create enough chances for Belgium to force some productive attacks but it turned out they got outplayed by France who currently tops group A table with 6 points waiting to face Italy to end the first round of the group stage.

[alani123]

Greece came in surprisingly strong in this nations league managing to hod off and even eventually beat Germany. German newspapers instead of celebrating a small team doing well called Greece a "dwarf in football" managing to beat Germany. Bitter losers? I doubt it. German people I know have a great sense of humour. But surely some newspaper editors must not like Greece for some reason haha.

In any case, I'm hearing the tickets for the match Greece will have Vs Holland are going fast so... Grab them while you can. This year's nations league is going well for Greece but Holland is another hard opponent.

[Uhde]

Greece came in surprisingly strong in this nations league managing to hod off and even eventually beat Germany. German newspapers instead of celebrating a small team doing well called Greece a "dwarf in football" managing to beat Germany. Bitter losers? I doubt it. German people I know have a great sense of humour. But surely some newspaper editors must not like Greece for some reason haha.

In any case, I'm hearing the tickets for the match Greece will have Vs Holland are going fast so... Grab them while you can. This year's nations league is going well for Greece but Holland is another hard opponent.

yeah. Greece missing out on the World Cup doesn't change the fact that they no longer have the squads of past years that finished bottom of the group or went home with zero points.
they are much stronger now and could easily be the wild card team pulling off surprising results in the Nations League. They’ve already built up a serious momentum.

[Rikafip]

In any case, I'm hearing the tickets for the match Greece will have Vs Holland are going fast so... Grab them while you can. This year's nations league is going well for Greece but Holland is another hard opponent.

Too bad (for you Greeks) is that games vs Netherland and Germany will be played at Toumba and not Olympic Stadium, since latter can accommodate like 3x more people. But then again, I guess your football federations wants to make it easier for others part of Greece to see national team and not only people that live in Athens.
Regarding that game, BTTS seems like a logical choice.


Tough game tonight for Croatia vs Spain. No one gives us any chances, but that wouldn't be the first time that we perform well and surprise the favorite when yiu least except, Having said that, we either gonna need a really good game to beat the world's best team at the moment.

[Stormisover]

🤔 Was it the right call, or should Ronaldo have been given a chance?

I can see that you are a big Ronaldo fan and I agree with you that Ronaldo is a great footballer but biology and age are working against him.
Ronaldo was born on February 5, 1985 which means that he is now 41 years old.
Until when, in your opinion, should Ronaldo play? Until he turns 50 or 60?  
Ronaldo is no longer as fast as he used to be, he is no longer as effective in attack, and he does not play defense so he is always a player less for his team.
Realistically, Ronaldo is a great player who has not yet realized that his time has passed.
The fact is that Portugal plays better without Ronaldo in the team, which was also evident in their last match.

I think it is right for Ronaldo to retire from international duties, or maybe be coming in as a super sub. G. Ramos is a better option now, he's faster and more adaptive to the game since he's more younger and more energetic. Ronaldo is a great player, he brings good leadership and experience to the team, but age is telling on him now and he has to admit it. The coach made the right call by not adding him to the starting XI. Whether we believe it or not, his exclusion was instrumental to the victory. He is an idol and would be remembered, but his glory days are over, he may want to go into coaching now.

Meanwhile, I like your merit count, reminds me of an important year in my existence .

Ronaldo still playing for the Portuguese National team is not actually his making, at least he's not the one making the calls on players, for the coach to call him for this competition, there must be a reason behind it, so why do we keep stressing ourselves over nothing, if they win match on his absence on the pitch people will talk about him, if they lost while he's on the pitch he will be the one to take all the blame as if the rest ten men are there for decoration, if they still win while he's on the pitch they will give the glory to someone else and still talk about Ronaldo, like they should let him breath, left with him, he could has retired long ago, but the national team don't want to let go of him, it's not his fault.