Football Daily | Spain, France and the unexplainable magic of the Nations League

11 hours ago 4

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE GAME

In common with the fiendishly complicated lunchtime TV quiz show Turnabout that was broadcast on the BBC during the 1990s, it is possible to watch and thoroughly enjoy the Nations League without having the foggiest idea what on earth is going on. Dreamed up by Uefa several years ago to eliminate the need for the kind of pointless international friendlies that – [Football Daily checks fixture list] – are taking place across Europe this weekend, the Nations League has managed to inveigle its way into the subconscious of most football fans to the extent that they know it is A Thing, even if the vast majority of them remain completely baffled by its format and are at a loss to explain why it exists.

Of course, like an entertaining Adrian Chiles Big Website column about the wisdom of purchasing mustard shorts when you know everyone will hate them or doing a naked forward roll, not everything has to be of the weightiest significance for us purists to consider it worthwhile. And in Thursday night’s Nations League semi-final between Spain and France, we were served up a bona fide treat. Described in many quarters as a nine-goal “thriller” despite Spain having enjoyed a 4-0 and 5-1 lead, it was still a close and important enough game to prompt complaints from Kylian Mbappé about the referee’s timekeeping when the official blew his final whistle seconds after France had pulled the score back to 5-4, three minutes into added time.

“When two great teams like this play you sometimes see a lot of goals,” explained Lamine Yamal who, along with the France substitute and Manchester City target Rayan Cherki, was the standout player on the pitch. “They will make you suffer until the end but we went to the final despite the mistakes we made. We were aware of what we wanted to do. We wanted to make history. The greatest thing when you are winning is to keep winning.”

Having qualified for their third successive Nations League final, Spain can look forward to an all-Iberian showdown against Portugal on Sunday night, when Lamine Yamal will come up against Cristiano Ronaldo, who won his first Premier League title with Manchester United a couple of months before the 17-year-old Spaniard was born. “He’s a football legend,” added Lamine Yamal of Ronaldo before the final at Munich’s Allianz Arena. “I have huge respect for Cristiano but I will do my job, which is to try to win.” Whether he knows what the prize is that’s up for grabs in Sunday’s Sphere Game remains to be seen.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I think he went over there with a point to prove. I think he wanted to prove Manchester United wrong and prove people in the Premier League wrong. He has gone over there and done that pretty successfully. That’s credit to him, credit to his attitude and his determination to be the best version of himself. Now he is a king over there” – Scotland skipper Andy Robertson hails teammate Scott McTominay after his year for the ages with Napoli.

I can’t be doing with the Club World Cup, and I’ve never had much time for narcissism’s favourite goalhanger Cristiano Ronaldo (yesterday’s Football Daily). But I would love it, absolutely love it, if Gianni Infantino had no option but force him to sign for Auckland City to try and wrench those coins for the bloody competition. Apologies to Auckland City goal machine Ryan De Vries for suggesting it, but sometimes annoying Ronaldo must prevail. And apologies to New Zealand if Ronaldo then has to sod off down there for a bit, but it is time for another continent to take its turn to support the weight of his ego” – Jon Millard.

Re: Eberechi Eze on England’s preparations (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition). Taking tablets and getting on a bike? Thomas Tuchel’s training methods remind me of many nights out in Amsterdam a few years back” – Gerry Rickard.

It has been mentioned that Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is leaving Manchester City and being replaced by a Dutch midfielder. Is that really the case or does KDB just not want to play in any Reijnders games?” – Michael Glogower.

If you do have any, please send letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Gerry Rickard. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, can be viewed here.