Pressure is on in Nations League
TAB soccer customers have some great international matches to bet on with African Nations Cup qualifiers and the final group matches of the UEFA Nations League.
The jury is still out on the new UEFA Nations League competition, which has been brought in to replace dull friendlies and pits countries of similar ability against each other in a more competitive environment.
It will likely still take a while to capture fans’ imagination, but it is an effort to provide games with more perspective and substance, and does make for a week filled with international intrigue, starting on Thursday and continuing through to the next Tuesday.
There are four tiers of competition for the 55 European football-playing nations with the superpowers paired together for some mouth-watering fixtures.
The group with world champions France, their predecessors Germany and the always dangerous Netherlands has already ensured some absorbing games and signalled something of a changing of the guard.
Germany are uncharacteristically struggling with the threat of the axe hanging over coach Joachim Low, even if he signed a contract extension earlier this year, while France have had a few narrow escapes since winning the World Cup in Russia.
This international week will bring to a close the group phase of the Nations League, played over the last three months, and provide some interesting scenarios.
These include the prospect that Germany might be relegated to the second tier of European football after losing to the Dutch and French in their group.
The same fate might also befall Croatia, runners-up in Russia in July but who have since been handed a 6-0 thrashing at the hands of Spain and held at home by England.
Luka Modric and teammates host Spain on Thursday and are then away against England on Sunday.
If Croatia beat Spain, then England could win the group by beating the Croats in the last Group 4 game.
England more than had the measure of Croatia away behind closed doors last month, but it eventually ended goalless
TAB soccer pool punters can bet on all Nations League games plus all the key African Nations Cup qualifiers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
This includes Bafana Bafana’s home game against Nigeria on Saturday which is the marquee game on the continent this weekend.