Nations League saves us from international break boredom
Hmouth-watering line-up for semi-finals offers surprise lift after Premier League pauses as excitement is starting to build
Be honest, we all had the same thought after watching Liverpool and Manchester City deliver one of the best Premier League games for a while, packed with drama, talking points, skill and sensational goals… not another international break.
Just as we felt like things were heating up nicely, at both ends of the table, as the league started to take shape and the teams settled into some sort of rhythm, we had to hit the pause button.
We had even had our first sacking of the season, too. Granted it was at Watford, so not exactly a surprise and quite possibly not the last they will make before May, but still.
It is like watching a live match with a weak internet connection and the screen keeps freezing.
Or a good drama series, before Netflix came along, and you had to wait a week for the next episode, no matter how tantalising the cliffhanger. It is incredibly frustrating, but always the same at this time of the year.
Everything is stop-start and nobody can really get a clear idea of where teams are, good or bad, until we get into a solid block of domestic football from November onwards. In the meantime, we all have to pretend to be interested in unequal, uneven, uncompetitive international fixtures.
After all, nothing gets the heart racing more than the thought of England playing Andorra away.
At least Scotland do have something to play for against
Israel. Even if you are not Scottish, that is a proper game with a World Cup play-off place on the line at Hampden. It will be far more interesting than England seeing how many goals they can put past Andorra’s overworked goalkeeper while trying not to pick up any injuries by overstraining themselves.
It will be walking football played by professionals rather than OAPS. But hang on, what is this? All is not lost.
In fact, this international break is actually, genuinely (no, really, I mean it) going to be good.
You may vaguely remember the Nations League?
You know, that bold Uefa idea to dispense with meaningless international games and create a tournament with groups and then semi-finals and a final. It was all very clever and exciting, and it might just have worked because the semi-finals are taking place in this break, pitching France against Belgium and Italy against Spain.
I don’t know about you, but that is a better, more evenly matched line-up than the Euros this summer, containing four of the five best teams (England being the other) in Europe.
France have a point to prove after losing to Switzerland in the summer, Belgium will finally want to make something of their golden generation before age starts to catch up with them. Italy are European champions and the masters of the dark arts, who never look like being beaten, and the Spanish will be desperate to restore some pride in their game given the well-publicised demise of Barcelona and Real Madrid. If your two biggest clubs have just embarrassed La Liga in the Champions
League, perhaps the national team can put some smiles on their faces again. It is a simple enough test, but would you pay money to watch those games if you had the chance to do so? Absolutely, no question at all.
Italy and Spain kick things off tonight, with the other semi-final tomorrow, followed by the thirdplace play-off and then the final at the weekend. It is genuinely exciting, four elite teams going head-tohead with a trophy to lift at the end of it.
It will be international football at its very best.
Far better than most group games at a major tournament and the majority of early knockout rounds, too. So, for once, well done Uefa.
We may have scoffed at the Nations League once upon a time, but not any more.
You may have just saved us from two weeks of teeth-grinding waiting for the Premier League to return.
Meanwhile, Lucas and Theo Hernandez could tomorrow become the first brothers to play together for the French national team since the Revellis in the 1970s.
Lucas, 25, won the World Cup with Les Bleus in 2018 but younger brother Theo, 23, who plays at leftback for AC Milan, earned his first cap last month in a World Cup qualifier against Finland.
“It’s a source of pride, a pleasure to be here with my brother. We couldn’t dream of this as children. It is exceptional, incredible,” said Bayern Munich defender Lucas, who won the first of his 28 caps in a friendly against Colombia in March 2018.
“It is an incredible moment for the whole family. It is a moment of happiness and pleasure. We haven’t been able to train together yet, so it will be nice. These are unique moments.”