The fourth edition of the UEFA Nations League kicks off tonight with Scotland having reached the pinnacle.
Having started off in Nations League C when the first edition started in September 2018, Scotland were immediately promoted to Nations League B after topping that group ahead of Israel and Albania.
Here’s the Israel win that clinched us top spot, and with it the playoff for Euro 2020 that ultimately got us out of the 23 year wilderness.
Of Course, UEFA changed the format a bit after that, which meant Israel also ended up in League B and so of course we drew them again along with Slovakia and the Czech Republic. That campaign was a bit odd thanks to covid, but Scotland finished second, narrowly missing out on promotion but retaining the League B spot.
Here’s the Czech game from that campaign.
So when the third Nations League kicked off in June 2023, we began what would be another successful campaign in a group along with Ukraine, Republic of Ireland and Armenia.
Here’s all the goals from that campaign!
Topping that group meant promotion to League A, which is where we find ourselves today.
Which is more than can be said for the rest of the United Kingdom, with both England and Wales being relegated to League B last time out, and Northern Ireland being down in League C. We don’t often get to enjoy this kind of thing, so let’s just say it here – get it right up ye!
We start off this campaign with a home match against Poland. Now, that’s a good thing for many reasons. Firstly, our Nations League home record is excellent, as you may have seen above. As well as beating Israel 3-2 we also beat Albania 2-0 in that same campaign. Since then we’ve beaten Czech Republic 1-0, Slovakia 1-0, Armenia 2-0, Republic of Ireland 2-1 and Ukraine 3-0 across the previous three campaigns. Only Israel in the 2020/21 campaign have managed to get a 1-1 draw, thus spoiling the chance of a 100% record so far.
Our opponents Poland only won one of their three away games last time and that was a narrow 1-0 win away to Wales. In fact, between that and beating Bosnia-Herzegovina in the campaign prior to that, they’ve only won two of their eight away games in the Nations League so far. Although they have played the likes of Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal and got draws, but they’ve also lost away to Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium.
They’ve actually finished third in all three Nations League campaigns. It would have got them relegated from League A in the first one had UEFA not reorganised the structure.
Oh, and they are also the only team who were knocked out of Euro 2024 faster than we were.
Now for the bad news. Scotland have never beaten Poland at home. Of the eleven games that we’ve played against them, only two have resulted in Scotland wins, and both of them were in Poland in friendlies. In June 1958, Scotland won 2-1 courtesy of two goals from Bobby Collins. In March 2014, Scotland won 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Scott Brown. I’m saving the video of these for November though!
Of the five games we’ve played at home, the first two were defeats. May 1960 saw Poland win 3-2, twice being pegged back to level terms thanks to goal from Denis Law and Ian St John. No footage of this one.
The World Cup qualifier in October 1965 had Scotland leading through Billy McNeill, but two late goals from Poland turned it on its head. Had we not done that, we might well have qualified for the World Cup the following year in England. Still, here’s Pathe!
The last three times we’ve played Poland at home, and here’s where I get annoyed because I was at all three of these games, Scotland have been leading only to concede in annoying fashion.
The Italia 90 warm up game in May 1990, my very first football match, saw Mo Johnston open the scoring only for a Gary Gillespie own goal where he chipped the ball over Andy Goram to leave the scoreline at 1-1.
Then in Euro 2016 qualifying, Scotland fell behind early to a Robert Lewandowski goal, but Matt Richie and Steven Fletcher had us heading for victory until the atmosphere in the stadium went silent on news that Ireland were beating Germany and ruining our chances of qualifying. With that, Poland pounced and Lewandowski got a last minute equaliser, just to make sure we were out.
The latest came in March 2022, when our World Cup playoff with Ukraine was postponed and Poland’s World Cup playoff with Russia was cancelled due to the small disagreement between our respective opponents (it’s hard not to get political here). The two teams got together for a fundraising friendly at Hampden, which turned out to be my son’s first Scotland game (gotta love the symmetry) and Kieran Tierney looked to have given Scotland the win before a last gasp penalty converted by Krzysztof Piątek rescued a draw for Poland.
Neither team has played since disappointment at Euro 2024. For us, it was the last gasp defeat to Hungary. And yes, I’m going to post it since it was our last game.
For Poland, it was a 1-1 draw with France where both goals were penalties and France were already through anyway. It did stop them topping the group though.
Poland were, as noted earlier, already out. By the time they faced France, Netherlands had come from behind to beat them 2-1 in the opening game…
And Austria had resoundingly beating them 3-1 in the second game.
In the other game in our group tonight, Portugal will host Croatia. Not sure why Portugal get two home games in a row to open this campaign given that we go there on Sunday to face them, that seems a little unfair. Poland also get two away games as they’ll go to Croatia on Sunday. It will balance out eventually, but they’re definitely getting the chance to have a head start!
Then again, so are we. A home game to start, against a team probably as disappointed as we are with how the summer went. Scotland need a lift after the Euro disappointment, and this is how we go about getting it. The Nations League draw has been kind to us who you look at the other three groups. It will still be our hardest challenge, but one we are capable of facing.
And there is more to play for this time out. Previously, you had to win your Nations League A group to make the final tournament. Now you can finish in the top two and do so, because they’ve added a quarter final stage to it. So there’s more positive, but there’s also more negative, from our perspective. Finish bottom, and you still get relegated to League B. But finish third, as Poland have done every time, and you’ll be in a playoff with the runner up in League B. The winner of that playoff will be in League A next time.
Yeah, UEFA have further expanded the number of actual games in the Nations League for quite a few teams. We’ll keep an eye on that one as the campaign progresses. There’s also the World Cup draw to follow the Nations League, and how this all plays out will have a big impact on that. The number of games to be played in 2025 being part of that, but also UEFA did say they’d be using the Nations League rankings in the draw rather than FIFA rankings, so the better we can do here, the better we might set ourselves up for World Cup qualifying.
Although I’m sure UEFA will reserve the right to change their mind about that depending on how it might impede their favourites! Especially those currently sitting in League B…
Win tonight, and we’ll go into Sunday’s game with more confidence than we’ve had in a while. We have, after all, only won one match in a year now and that was against Gibraltar. Win tonight, and we’ll do something that no Scotland team has ever done before in beating Poland at home.
But mostly I just want to finally shake off that annoying monkey on my back that was put there 34 years ago by Gary ******* Gillespie!
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