Croatia scored an exciting draw in the inaugural UEFA Nations League draw, which will pit teams of similar caliber together in a Champions League-like group format September-November 2018.
Croatia will play four matches against Spain and England (home and away) for a chance to go to the Nations League playoffs in June 2019. If Croatia win the group, they go to the playoffs. If they finish second; remain in League A for the next tournament. If they finish third; they will be relegated to League B.
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The inaugural campaign of the UEFA Nations League is here and it begins with the draw Wednesday at noon in Switzerland. The brand new nations league will help qualify teams for the European championships and spice up the competition by grouping teams of similar caliber. It will be replacing meaningless friendlies a Champions League-like group stage where every team in the group plays home and away with the other teams. The format is a bit confusing but here are the best explanations.
Sky Sports explains exactly how the Nations League will work, but all you really need to know without going into detail, is that Croatia will be in Group A, which is the highest group with the toughest competition.
Croatia will be paired with two other teams from League A Pot 1 and Pot 2. That means they can be drawn with Germany and France or Spain and England, to name a few scenarios. Winning the group will see them go to the semifinals of the Nations Cup in the summer of 2019 while finishing last in group can see them drop to League B the following tournament. The draw will take place noon Wednesday, Croatia time.
UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE EXPLAINED
This fucking “Nations League” is nothing but a washed out version of the Euros. I mean wtf?! Now we have Euros, World Cup, Champions League, League of Nations, Club World Cup, Coca Cola and fucking Pepsi cup. What’s next? Snickers and Mars Bar finals?
This is just another competition to fill the already fat and greedy pockets of those swines at UEFA and FIFA. Fucking corrupt fuckers.
We still have 2 most healthy and decent world cup 2018 also 2022 with 32 format teams, that win these world cup or even 3rd place could be worth of acknowledgement. Don’t dare to cry in such event like 48 format teams of world cup, even for euro cup nation, this is like marely club competition without soul.
https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en-CA&ie=UTF-8&source=android-browser&q=kovacic+manchester+united&gws_rd=cr,ssl&dcr=0&ei=0HxpWtiQJMKhzwK57I7gBA
Sorry I meant demoted to Group B.
Well lets enjoy this world cup in 2018 boys…because euro2020 is scattered all over europe so thats gonna suck. WC 2022 will be played in the winter time. Euro2024 will be ok i guess. WC2026 will have 40 teams!!
Its based on the current rankings and the luck of the draw. oh and @anon. Germanys B team won the confederations cup so theyve got a strong one
If you finish 3rd in your group you go to group B? France Netherlands Germany is a group. 1 of those teams will not be in the top 12 of Group A. Meanwhile you have Belgium Switzerland Iceland in one group and our Group. If this effects your rankings I don’t know how smart this even though it’s nice to be playing against better quality teams more consistently for once. I still don’t think we should be at risk of moving to group A or even Spain or even England while either Iceland or Switzerland will stay. Am I understanding the rules correctly?
Sorry got the years mixed up…I meant Euro 2024 will be messed up by tanking at Nations League in 2021 to ensure an easier path at Nations League 2023.
I’m a fan of this idea, but really don’t like that teams from groups C and D get automatic qualification into Euro. It won’t mean much for the inaugural tournament, but the second one could get stupid. That one will be played in advance of the next World Cup. Poor results in that second tournament could get a group C team dropped to group D in advance of the third tournament which will have implications towards Euro 2022 qualifying. If you’re Scotland for instance, a team that hasn’t qualified for anything meaningful in years, your back door into Euro 2022 is to tank in the second Nations League tournament, to get dropped to group D for the third Nations League, where there is a relatively simple path to group D victory and direct qualification to Euro 2022. They should have simply made the four group A winners (the semi finalists) the automatic Euro qualifiers.
I love this, no more playing on third world pitches for all our studs. My only beef is that (with all our world class talent and studs) we haven’t got a B team in this league of nations.
We’re the only national team that could have two world class teams, no other team can, only Croatia!
One day soon Croatia will win something with all our depth of talent and world class studs!
This is awesome for our players and us as fans!!! Finally, no more meaningless games against 3rd world teams on shithole pitches.
As for the group, love it. Anywhere in England and Spain for our boys to play on. Hopefully this fast tracks the building of the national stadium where ever they decide to build it.
maybe even a friendly or two. the groups with 3 teams have room to play 2 friendlies
Maminjo thanks for laying out our opponents on the platter for all to see…
Yeah 2018 will be an exciting year for Croatian football, as this is actually the most competitive fixtures we’ve had in years–if not EVER!
This truly will be a “Baptism of Fire,” as Croatian football will be put to the Test against quality opposition–constantly throughout the year! And no more playing on pitches that look like my Baba’s cow pasture!
Let’s hope Vatreni take inspiration from Stipe Miocic and defeat all these opponents, like the way Stipe cleaned out the entire Heavyweight division. 🙂
euros turning into a liberal hoopla 😀
Am I reading this right? The group D winner automatically qualifies for the next Euro? If that’s the case, Kosovo for instance needs to top a group that includes Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands, and Malta and then win two games against the likes of Georgia, Belarus, and Macedonia to automatically qualify for Euro?!?
@ Maminjo
Thanks for breaking down the big time schedule for the next generation Croatian super stars !
So….
We’re gonna play Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, Iceland, England (twice) and Spain (twice)….all in 2018.
(this doesn’t include the teams we play if we advance further in the World Cup)
Love the draw !!!
This nations league benefits us as we are ensured elite competitive matches and will avoid the at Estonia matches in the future.
All the young talent will get an opportunity to showcase their skills in front of La Liga.
England are back on the rise with Kane and company of young studs.
Big time !
spain
england
croatia
….
now that is a good group
Who cares about the whole Israel and Palestine thing.
So many more important things in life than that.
They should put Palestine in group C to even it out.
That new National Team stadium will be put to good use now.
This is awesome! As it gives Croatia another opportunity to win some silverware, so now we have the World Cup, Euros, and League of Nations. I think we’ll win one of these in the future….
And it’s so much better than playing in some god forsaken place, on a pitch that looks like a war zone!
So much better than playing Estonia, San Marino et al.
Going to be awesome. Wish every soccer game was an international game.
Doubt slightly injured stars will play in some of these games, as I can see club teams wanting this to fail.
but it dose look like it will be better than uefa euro cup… welll we will see
lol beetweene 2 uefa cups there are 4 years, same as wc
yea ivo you dumb arse
Ivo it says winner to be crowned June of 2019
samo me zanima za ligu nacija, hoće li to biti kup kao što je bio uefa euro ili prava liga koja traje 4 godine?
he won, yeah you do look somthing like him
Cilic is playing unreal atm, real chance to beat the world #1