He didn’t play today, but Christian Benteke still getting call ups for Belgium is hilarious. Give a young guy like Landry Dimata a cap against San Marino instead of a player who has been awful for the last few years.
So officially in: England Czech Republic Ukraine Portugal Germany Netherlands Switzerland Denmark Croatia Wales Spain Sweden Poland Austria France Turkey Belgium Russia Italy Finland 4 spots up for grabs. It is supposed to be decided as 4 countries in each Nations League that didn’t qualify already will go into a playoff and that will fill the 4 spots (4 Nations Leagues for UEFA). However, Iceland is the only country in Nations League A that didn’t qualify so they are taking 4 countries from Nations League C and will do a draw. 1 stays in with other Nations League C playoff and the other 3 will go in with Iceland
Play-off line-up Path A: Iceland, Bulgaria/Israel/Hungary/Romania* Path B: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland Path C: Scotland, Norway, Serbia, Bulgaria/Israel/Hungary/Romania* Path D: Georgia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Belarus *A draw will decide which of Bulgaria, Israel, Hungary or Romania would fill the empty slot in Path C, and which three would go into Path A.
Don't feel bad for Portugal in the least. Not winning a single group stage match and winning the tournament is something that shouldn't be permitted. The way Ronaldo acted after the Iceland match pissed me off. It would have meant the world to Iceland if he behaved in a similar fashion to how Juventus fans treated him after that overhead kick.
Following that group will be great but the rest of the group stage is now much more likely to be a snooze fest. The Netherlands are famous for their self inflicted implosions. It would take their worst one yet to not advance out of that group. I wish I could see the odds of Lukaku and Eden Hazard winning the Golden Boot before the draw opposed to afterwards. Belgium are the Steve Spurrier at Florida of running up the score of international soccer. It was a good day for The Lowcountries.
The last two World Cup champs and the last Euro champ in the game group. 3 top 15 in the world rankings in one group, 3 top 10 Euro teams in the same group.
Sounds like they aren’t into creatively changing the calendar to fit with the 2022 WC and are just moving it to next summer. Boring and expected, I suppose.