Europe benefits from the Nations League

This is a very significant advantage ahead of the 2022 World Cup. Strong teams in Europe are much more favorable than opponents from other continents in preparing for the 2022 World Cup finals, which will take place later this year. in Qatar.

As it is often said: preparation can determine 70% of the success or failure of a major tournament. But in terms of expertise, nothing is more important than the quality of the friendly competition before entering the tournament. It is always an important opportunity for military leaders to review their forces, test preset gameplay, test new options… And of course, it’s also an important measure for insiders to look at their capabilities. compete, judge your own strength. No friendly game, how to “know people, know me”!

Spain (left) drew 1-1 with Portugal in Nations League yesterday morning AFP

In Nations League 2022 – 2023, Gareth Southgate’s England team will have up to 6 “high-quality” matches against Italy, Hungary and Germany. Four consecutive matches will take place in 11 days (from the match against Hungary tonight). The last two games will take place in September. It’s clear: Southgate is free to adjust, test, evaluate important technical issues before entering the World Cup. Also in the Nations League, there are matches between Belgium and the Netherlands; Switzerland meets Spain and Portugal; Denmark meets France and Croatia… It’s just schedule attractive for fans in relevant countries to wait and see, as well as a great opportunity for the aforementioned teams to prepare before the 2022 World Cup.

In theory, the Nations League is an official UEFA competition. In fact, many people still consider this to be a type of “friendship in disguise”. Either way, there’s no denying the importance of the test matches that the strong teams in Europe desperately need before the World Cup. At least, Nations League matches are a lot more serious than friendly football where one can change all 11 players on the field at the same time. Due to qualification related EURO 2024 (some “recovery tickets” for the EURO finals will come from this tournament) so the mid-range teams and below in Europe will all decide to fight, certainly there is no such thing as “win or lose” like other matches. international friendly pure.

The question arises: what do the other strong teams in the world do, when the European teams jubilantly enter the Nations League? Of course everyone wants to play friendly. But because European teams “must” play against each other, the object of friendlies of strong non-European teams becomes very limited. Brazil, for example: they just played a friendly with Korea (won 5-1 in Seoul), and are preparing to meet Japan in Tokyo. End! Argentina Fortunately, there was also an Intercontinental Cup match with Italy. Besides, they can only play friendlies with Estonian in this round.

In the near future, “FIFA day” will only appear in September for the national teams to play friendly matches. But the problem has not changed. At that time, it was still European teams playing against each other in the Nations League, while the national team in the remaining regions had to try to find a quality opponent to try. In fact, friendlies in September are always controversial, because that is the time when the European football season has just started for a month and there are often controversies between national teams and clubs around the summoning of players. . So right now is the “best” time for strong teams to play friendly matches. And of course, there is no better type of friendly than UEFA’s official Nations League tournament, both in terms of professional quality and enthusiasm in competition.