UEFA European Football Forum

Yes, he just says that teams from 2nd place in division A groups will fight for possibility to play in Nations League Finals. And that also some chance for teams from 3rd places in division A will be created to reach Nations League Finals
Edit: he probably misunderstood something. 3rd teams in division A would play against 2nd teams in division B groups for a place in Division A.

https://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleague/ ... wednesday/

The draw for the four-team 2023 UEFA Nations League finals in Rotterdam and Enschede will be streamed live from UEFA Headquarters in Nyon at 11:00 CET on Wednesday 25 January.

Which teams are involved in the UEFA Nations League draw?

Croatia
Italy
Netherlands (hosts)
Spain

Draw procedure

Pot 1
The two match pairings A and B are determined as follows:

• The team drawn first is the home team of match pairing A.

• The team drawn second is the away team of match pairing A.

• The third team drawn is the home team of match pairing B.

• Pot 1 is emptied and the draw finished with the fourth team drawn to be the away team of match pairing B.

If the second or fourth team drawn is the host team, the relevant semi-final pairing is switched around so that the host team is declared the home team.

The match pairing which includes the host team is considered to be semi-final 1, the other match pairing is semi-final 2.

The team from semi-final 1 will be considered the home team for the third-place match and final.

When are the Nations League finals matches?

Semi-final 1: 14 June (Rotterdam, 20:45 CET)
Semi-final 2: 15 June (Enschede, 20:45 CET)
Third-place match: 18 June (Enschede, 15:00 CET)
Final: 18 June (Rotterdam, 20:45 CET)

What needless convolution! Why don't they just auto assign the host to the home team of semi final 1?

Lorric wrote: ↑Sat Jan 21, 2023 00:50 What needless convolution! Why don't they just auto assign the host to the home team of semi final 1?

Agree mate. I'd do it Club WC style 2 pots: 1 with 3 non hosts, 1 with letters A, B and C. Give teams a letter:
SF1: Host v Team A
SF2: Team B v Team C

Jackson Harrison wrote: ↑Sat Jan 21, 2023 09:27

Lorric wrote: ↑Sat Jan 21, 2023 00:50 What needless convolution! Why don't they just auto assign the host to the home team of semi final 1?

Agree mate. I'd do it Club WC style 2 pots: 1 with 3 non hosts, 1 with letters A, B and C. Give teams a letter:
SF1: Host v Team A
SF2: Team B v Team C

Why do they even need letters? Just draw the 3 teams, and put them by order...

amirbachar wrote: ↑Sat Jan 21, 2023 11:59

Jackson Harrison wrote: ↑Sat Jan 21, 2023 09:27

Lorric wrote: ↑Sat Jan 21, 2023 00:50 What needless convolution! Why don't they just auto assign the host to the home team of semi final 1?

Agree mate. I'd do it Club WC style 2 pots: 1 with 3 non hosts, 1 with letters A, B and C. Give teams a letter:
SF1: Host v Team A
SF2: Team B v Team C

Why do they even need letters? Just draw the 3 teams, and put them by order...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randomness

Try telling FIFA that!

Match Schedule:

Jackson Harrison wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 21:48 Match Schedule:

It's not correct. The final will be played in Rotterdam, not Enschede.

nogomet wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 09:28

Jackson Harrison wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 21:48 Match Schedule:

It's not correct. The final will be played in Rotterdam, not Enschede.

True.

Big bals up on our part.

Draw time rediculous most of us are working will have to avoid spoilers and watch on lunch hour. Usually watch PMQS at that time on a Wednesday lol.

Looking at historical results, it's clear who is our most preferred SF opponent.

v : 3W 5D 0L
v : 1W 0D 1L
v : 3W 1D 5L

I ran a survey on Twitter, this is what the crowd wants for CRO:
60% Italy
33% Netherlands
7% Spain

It's bizarre how rarely Croatia and Netherlands play each other. Only 2 games, ever! One in 1998 (3rd place WC playoff) and 2008 friendly. That's it.

This is extremely unusual for two top European teams that qualify for almost all of the tournaments and play so many other competitions/friendlies where they can meet each other.

In comparison, this is the number of our games against other European top teams:

v : 11
v : 10
v : 9
v : 9
v : 8
v : 7
v : 5

Finals draw and schedule

Semi-finals
Wednesday 14 June: Netherlands vs Croatia (Rotterdam, 20:45 CET)
Thursday 15 June: Spain vs Italy (Enschede, 20:45 CET)

Match for third place
Sunday 18 June: Netherlands/Croatia vs Spain/Italy (Enschede, 15:00 CET)

Final
Sunday 18 June: Netherlands/Croatia vs Spain/Italy (Rotterdam, 20:45 CET)

ExCo finishes in 12 mins @tow.

Nerveouly awaiting the media release will be an interesting read for sure. No press conference no doubt that's done tacticallly.

https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/mediase ... tions-app/

Will post my thoughts later

So under the new format, if you finish 2nd in League A, you have a chance to be the champions, but if you finish 3rd, you have a chance to be relegated. Talk about a thin margin of error! (Similarly for League B between promoted or relegated)