England v Italy from 1900 on C4

[blueblueblue]

If this is anything like the last two games, I'm not expecting too much. No crowd either which doesn't make for great watching.

 

[Cricko]

Handy that you don't have glasses to watch it.

 

[blueblueblue]

Handy that you don't have glasses to watch it.

I'm blind as a bat without them, even my dog is looking at me funny because I'm wearing the one lens ones with one eye closed hahaha.

 

[blueblueblue]

This isn't a bad game and dare I say it, we look better without Kane.

 

[Cricko]

3 games, no wins and only 1 dodgy penalty scored. Yawnfest.

 

[blueblueblue]

3 games, no wins and only 1 dodgy penalty scored. Yawnfest.

The first half was a pretty good game, the second, I was nodding off.

 

[Smiffy]

 

[hlane17]

Another England snorefest then?

 

[Kris]

Think the first 60 mins were entertaining but once the mass sub fest from both teams happened it became very scrappy.

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

Looks to me like the players are just going through the motions after a long old season. Not just England players. Not sure this Nations League really captures the public imagination..might be useful for Gareth in giving game time to some new faces.

 

[southendkid]

These are basically glorified friendlies, they can stick some Champions League-esque music behind it but the reality is players won't want to push themselves at the end of the season for something that's only been around 2 years (especially since they changed the rules after year 1 so that the big names didn't get relegated).

 

[Mad Cyril]

Graeme Le Saux is not cut out for commentary and would be more at home writing for a newspaper.

Michael Owen is not cut out for TV and would be more at home telling questionable jokes down the Con Club.

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

England v Italy b&c. Not good. This competition should not be happening so close to the World Cup. Some of the players are absolutely knackered, and they clearly need a break from football.

 

[johnlattimerssponge]

Have never chosen not to watch an England game before when in the country and used to go to every game at Wembley for many years. But the Hungary game was dull IMHO so as neither a fan of this competition or Saturday night football I made other plans and having just fast forwarded through most of the game I am very happy with my decision.

 

[blueblueblue]

These are basically glorified friendlies, they can stick some Champions League-esque music behind it but the reality is players won't want to push themselves at the end of the season for something that's only been around 2 years (especially since they changed the rules after year 1 so that the big names didn't get relegated).

I'm sure the commentator said last night that if we finish bottom, we'll get relegated. Not that it means anything really in the grand scale of things, it really is a Micky Mouse Cup. It's just another money spinner for UEFA.

 

[southendkid]

I'm sure the commentator said last night that if we finish bottom, we'll get relegated. Not that it means anything really in the grand scale of things, it really is a Micky Mouse Cup. It's just another money spinner for UEFA.

Yeah we'll get relegated this time if we finish bottom but the first year the Nations League happened there were only 3 teams per group in Division A, which meant some big teams got relegated (Germany being the biggest). Someone at UEFA realised relegating big sides isn't good for business so they decided Division A should have 4 teams, meaning no one got relegated from Division A in the first season.

 

[blueblueblue]

Yeah we'll get relegated this time if we finish bottom but the first year the Nations League happened there were only 3 teams per group in Division A, which meant some big teams got relegated (Germany being the biggest). Someone at UEFA realised relegating big sides isn't good for business so they decided Division A should have 4 teams, meaning no one got relegated from Division A in the first season.

I still have no idea how this thing works.

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

From what I can gather we play each team again. If we “qualify” then what?

 

[blueblueblue]

From what I can gather we play each team again. If we “qualify” then what?

Christ knows, I have no idea how this works.....A lot of teams seem to take this serious (watched the Ireland v Scotland game). It was a totally different vib, top teams in Europe see these games as glorified friendly's..

 

[southendkid]

From what I can gather we play each team again. If we “qualify” then what?

Think of the groups like the regional divisions, the National League South and National League North are on the same level on the pyramid but the divisions are separate from each other, that's kind of what the Nations League is.

There are 4 levels to the pyramid but each level has 4 different mini-leagues, if you win your league then you get promoted to a higher tier for next year, if you finish bottom you get relegated to a lower tier.

For teams in the top tier (which we're currently in) since there's nowhere to be promoted to instead the winner of each mini-league gets put into a 4 team playoff (randomly drawn semi final followed by a final), the winner of the playoffs wins a trophy.