Why the Nations League is our new favourite thing
Sundays – especially those that are not branded by our TV satellite overlords as Super Sundays during these international breaks, have always given Football Daily the scaries. When the feeling of impending doom over another working week is not interrupted by the afternoon offerings of the usual Premier League kick-offs, Toby Carvery gravy and MOTD2's '2 Good 2 Bad', this particular tea-timely email starts getting a little jittery when the Sunday sun goes down. Yesterday, reader – with the weekend disappearing over the horizon faster than a Bobby Baggio penalty – Football Daily needed saving. We just didn't think the thing to save us would be the Nations League.
Uefa's shiny new(ish) international concept has copped some stick since its inception, including from this parish. We're still not sure exactly what the Nations League is or what it does beyond (according to Uefa) 'minimising meaningless friendlies and giving nations competitive encounters with equally-ranked teams' and providing a convoluted qualification system to a 48-team World Cup that is now almost impossible not to qualify for. But seeing as we're in the business of watching exciting, well-matched, high-quality matches between top-tier teams that actually seem to care about the game they are playing, it turns out the Nations League is something of a success.
If you tuned in to any of the quarter-final second legs on Sunday night – Spain v Netherlands, Germany v Italy, France v Croatia and Portugal v Denmark – you might have seen why. In those four matches there were four comebacks that would make The Karate Kid blush, three extra-times, two sudden-death penalty shootouts and drama that would send Alan Partridge up a pear tree shouting 'Did you see that?!' every time the ball hit the back of the net. And between Spain 3-3 Netherlands (5-5 agg, 6-5 pens), Germany 3-3 Italy (5-4 agg), Portugal 5-2 Denmark (aet, 5-3 agg) and France 2-0 Croatia (2-2 agg, 5-4 pens), said ball hit said net 21 times on the night. Subplots included, but were not limited to, a Lamine Yamal wondergoal, Cristiano Ronaldo taking one of the worst penalties of all time and then hopping around, knacked, on the sidelines like the Euro 2016 final, Bournemouth wonderkid Dean Huijsen balling out in his first start for Spain against the country of his birth, Germany scoring one of the most bizarre goals in recent memory from a corner (thanks Gianluigi Donnarumma!) before nearly blowing a 5-1 aggregate lead and an all-time goalkeeping performance from Croatia's Dominik Livakovic in Paris.
To cut a thrilling long story short, Germany will now play Portugal in their semi-final, and Spain face France in the other. Football Daily will be there, no matter what. Nations League is in, baby, everything else is out. To the poor souls braving Wembley on Monday evening for the World Cup Group K qualifier between England and Latvia – to help decide a group that also includes Andorra, Albania and Serbia – we salute you.
Join Daniel Harris from 7.45pm GMT for hot World Cup qualifying minute-by-minute coverage of England 2-0 Latvia.
He makes you understand the spaces on the pitch like no other coach and he lives the game emotionally like no other coach. I was brainwashed by [Pep] Guardiola, but in a good way. It was like I was at university. What I experienced with him allowed me to raise my level and keep that level to this day. It's not that I was an idiot before I arrived at Manchester City but I realised that I played football in completely the wrong way' – Danilo gets his chat on with
Thiago Rabelo about his days in higher education at the Etihad Stadium, toxic social media abominations and much, much more.
Is Chris Wood the next Russian nesting doll (Friday's Football Daily)? Getting into the referee's notebook by putting his name in other people's notebooks, and then the media wrote it in their 'notebooks'. And now I'm writing another hopeful letter to Football Daily. At over six feet tall and made of Wood, he has a good start' – Keith Taylor.
I can't have been the only person to check out the engineering marvel that is New Caledonia's Pont de Mouli after its shoutout in Friday's Football Daily. Having compared the before and after photos, it's safe to say it's the finest glow-up I've seen a bridge have since the former Southampton, Chelsea and England left back had his hair transplant' – Jim Hearson.
October 2021: Thomas Tuchel is angry after Thiago Silva returns late from his international duty with Brazil. March 2022: Tuchel says 'you can't discuss depth in the team when my players are involved in international breaks'. March 2025: No rotation for the sake of the clubs. Guess who? Yep!' – Krishna Moorthy.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today's letter o' the day winner is … Jim Hearson, who gets a copy of Engulfed: how Saudi Arabia Bought Sport, and the World. It's available in the Guardian Bookshop. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we have them, can be viewed here.
As international weekend and the lower reaches of the EFL chugged along, a couple of prestige friendlies took place. Everybody loves a 'legends' game', right? Not least because the concept of 'legend' can find itself stretched. Anfield staged a meeting of Liverpool and Chelsea alumni, all for charidee – and home fans were reacquainted with luminaries such as, erm, Mark González, Albert Riera and Igor Biscan. The Blues, featuring a 58-year-old Dennis Wise, and old mate Jody Morris snapping alongside him, as Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink led the line, were beaten by the undimmed striking instincts of string-bean striker, and modern-day b@ntz king Peter Crouch. Meanwhile, Robbie Keane missed boyhood club Liverpool's party to play instead for other boyhood club Spurs against Milan, alongside Teddy Sheringham, also 58. Ledley King's creaky knees got a run-out against a Milan club featuring Cafu, a mere 54, and Andrea Pirlo, hair still resplendent. Robbie, once of Italian boyhood club Inter, got a hat-trick past Dida, and, yes, performed that forward-roll celebration he made his own at his many boyhood clubs. Tottenham ran out 6-2 winners, Pirlo notching one of his trademark free-kicks, an absolute beauty.
Thomas Tuchel has a World Cup to win – and he won't be rotating his brave England boys to please those pesky club managers.
Expect a feisty atmosphere if you're heading along to see FC United v Stockton this weekend, because Manchester United fans will join the non-league club's supporters in a joint protest against the Glazers, 20 years since FC United were founded.
Todd Boehly has revealed that Chelsea's owners are likely to split if they disagree over plans for a new stadium. In more great news for Blues fans, the club will have to pay Manchester United £5m if they decide not to sign Jadon Sancho this summer.
Newcastle are showing just how rusty they are when it comes to celebrating success, having at first talked up a bus parade of the Milk Cup trophy only to then suggest this may be scaled down to a mood-killing alcohol-free event at Town Moor.
Thiago Motta is an up and coming manager no more after being sacked by Juventus and replaced by former Lazio boss Igor Tudor.
Manchester United forward Geyse, who has spoken of her unhappiness at the WSL club for various reasons, has joined Gotham FC on loan.
A tip of the hat to Real Madrid, who defeated Barcelona in a women's clásico for the first time ever – after 18 defeats.
And Sean Dyche feels he's been cruelly overlooked for a top job at a European giant. Kind of. '[Burnley] went down [in my final] season on 33 points, which people forget,' he blabbed on talkSPORT. 'But we'll go onto Vincent Kompany who got 24 points – I think – after spending £127m and ended up getting the Bayern job. I don't know how that works, but I wish I was doing it! I wish I had left the club £127m in debt and got the Bayern job, but anyway that's an interesting twist of life.'
Join Max Rushden and the Football Weekly pod squad as they chew over Thomas Tuchel's winning start as England manager, Nations League thrills and much, much more.
Weekend talking points from the WSL. Right here!
Borussia Dortmund chief suit Hans-Joachim Watzke talks to Matt Ford about his two decades at the club, including near-bankruptcy, selling players and the Klopp years.
The latest key to high performance? Sleep! Will Unwin investigates.
It's not going well for Mauricio Pochettino and Team USA USA USA after back-to-back defeats in the Concacaf Nations League finals. Leander Schaerlaeckens reflects on a loss of momentum ahead of the 2026 World Cup on home soil.
And know your Premier League top scorers? Take our quiz about Golden Boot winners through the seasons.
Here's Diego Maradona at a trendy Buenos Aires nightclub in 1983 with his brother (to his left) and friends. Nice knitwear. It's a photo from a broader picture essay by José Luis Ledesma, who was Maradona's personal snapper back in the day.
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