September 7 – Football entered a new international era as the Nations League kicked off on Thursday across Europe, almost outlawing friendlies, and incentivising the international game again. In the pick of the games world champions France were held to a scoreless draw in Munich against 2018 World Cup winners.
Long has the death of international football been proclaimed, overshadowed by the club game, but with the introduction of the Nations League, complete with new broadcast anthems and TV graphics, on early indications looks like UEFA has taken a decisive step to overturn that trend.
CONCACAF, the governing body in North and central America, has followed suit and will stage a nations league of their own this season. The model if successful may well be followed elsewhere.
UEFA’s new competition kicked off across the Old Continent Thursday with the pick of the games being the visit of newly crowned world champions France to Munich, where Germany were still licking their wounds from a disastrous first-round exit this summer in Russia.
Last week Joachim Low took the opportunity in a lengthy news conference to address some of Germany’s failings and present a roadmap for the future. He stressed that Germany had become overly attached to the ball on the field and that his team need to tweak their style, though stick to the basic blueprint that had rendered German football so successful before the World Cup.
Low faced strong criticism following the World Cup debacle and needed a positive result against France. In the end, both teams kept each other at bay in a diplomatic 0-0 result. France keeper Alphonse Areola had the majority of saves to make.
In Group B, Wales and Gareth Bale, scoring his 30th goal for his country, ran riot against the Republic of Ireland to win 4-1. The Irish had fielded a depleted team in their first home game. Tom Lawrence, Bale and Aaron Ramsey netted before the break and Connor Roberts added a fourth for the home side before substitute Shaun Williams reduced the deficit.
In other results Ukraine toppled the Czech Republic 2-1 and Bulgaria defeated Slovenia with the same scoreline.
On Friday Italy, who missed out on the World Cup finals for the first time since 1958 this summer, host Poland in Bologna and Saturday England welcome Spain to get their Nations League campaign under way.
With stadia sold out across Europe, gone are the meaningless friendlies. It is now a case of the battle of the giants rather than a wait for the giant killers.
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