Spanish footballers celebrated their victory in the UEFA Nations League A group match in Portugal on Tuesday, ahead of Portugal and entering the Nations League finals.
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Portugal lost to Spain at home with 0:1 (0:0) and allowed their opponents to overtake them.
Alvaro Morata scored the only goal in the 88th minute.
In the second game, Switzerland beat the Czech Republic 2-1 (2-1) in St. Gallen, which had already lost hopes of staying in the A League before this game.
In the 29th and 30th minutes, Remo Freiler and Bril Embolo scored two goals for the home team, and in the 45th minute, Patrik Schick scored one goal.
In the 61st minute, Tomāš Součeks missed the opportunity to equalize the score, who tried to send a 11-meter penalty kick into the left corner of the goal, but goalkeeper Janns Sommers guessed the direction of the kick. In addition, the shot hit the middle of the goal more than the corner.
In the 73rd minute, the ball went into the visitors’ goal again, but for Ruben Vargas, the video replay confirmed the position of the back before the goal was scored.
Spain won the A2 group with 11 points and entered the “play-off” tournament, Portugal was second with ten points, and Switzerland was third with nine points, while the Czech Republic with four points will be forced to fight in the B league next time.
Before that, the national teams of the Netherlands, Croatia and Italy had reached the final tournament of the A League.
In the second group of B League, Albania played 1:1 (1:0) with Iceland at home, both of them kept their place in the league.
Israel entered the A league, having collected eight points in four games. Iceland drew all their matches and collected four points, while Albania finished with two points. Russia, disqualified due to the invasion of Ukraine, dropped out of the international competition to the C League.
Scotland won the first group and will play higher in the league.
In the second match, Ireland defeated Armenia 3:2 (1:0) at home.
Scotland got 13 points in six games, Ukraine collected 11 points, Ireland – seven points, and Armenia, which collected three points, will play in the league below next season.
In the fourth group, Serbia celebrated its victory, which defeated Norway 2:0 (1:0) in the last game.
In the second match, Sweden and Slovenia played a draw – 1:1 (1:1).
Serbia collected 13 points, Norway – 10, Slovenia – six, but Sweden, which won four points, will have to play in the lower league.
Finally, in the second group of the C League, Greece won with 15 points, winning a ticket to the B League. Kosovo was second with nine points, and Northern Ireland was third with five points. Cyprus also collected five points, but will have to play in the play-offs to stay in the league.
In the last matches, Greece defeated Northern Ireland at home with 3:1 (1:1), and Kosovo – Cyprus – 5:1 (2:0).
In the Nations League, group winners earn the opportunity to play in a higher group next season. Namely, the team that wins one of the C groups gets the opportunity to compete in one of the B groups, while the winners of the B groups compete in the A groups next season. The weakest teams in Group C meet in knockout matches to determine the two teams that will be relegated to League D, replacing its two strongest teams.
The Nations League tournament is taking place for the third time.
The final tournament of the previous season took place last October, with France defeating Spain in the title race. In the first season, Portugal hosted the final tournament, the home team becoming the first UEFA Nations League champions in history.
