Nations League: The 2022/23 draw has been made

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The UEFA Nations League is still a fairly new idea. It is a biennial international football competition contested by the member associations of UEFA.

The last edition of the competition was won by France. You can read about it here. UEFA Nations League: Spain 1 - 2 France (eurosuperfootball.blogspot.com)

Ahead of a busy year of international football, nations are now preparing for the next edition of the competition.

Here are the UEFA Nations League groups in full. We have highlighted some of the more interesting groups.

Group A1: Austria, Croatia, Denmark, France.

Group A2: Czech Republic, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain.

Group A3: Hungary, England, Germany, Italy.

England have faced all of these sides in recent times. They beat Germany in a memorable Euro 2020 last-16 match before eventually losing to Italy in the final of the same competition. More recently, they beat Hungary in a World Cup qualifier.

England manager Gareth Southgate believes that the tough Nations League group is ideal preparation for their bid to win next year’s World Cup: “To win tournaments, you have got to win the big matches against the biggest countries and we have now got to do that consistently. That is the missing piece,”

Group A4: Wales, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium.

Wales are playing in the top division of the Nations League for the first time after they were recently promoted. They face some potentially interesting matches these sides. It will be a good indication of where they're at.

Group B1: Ukraine, Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Armenia

Ireland boss Steven Kenny was excited by this draw:"We're third seeds in the group so not many people would expect us to win the group but that will certainly be our ambition."

Group B2: Iceland, Russia, Israel, Albania

Group B3: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Finland, Romania, Montenegro

Group B4: Sweden, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia

Group C1: Turkey, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Faroe Islands

Group C2: Northern Ireland, Greece, Kosovo, Cyprus/Estonia

The Northern Ireland manager Ian Baraclough has recently signed a two-year contract extension with the Irish Football Association. He will therefore be in charge of their Nations League campaign. Baraclough told the Irish FA website:  “I am really happy to have signed this contract. We have a great mix of youth and experience and, coupled with my backroom team, I feel we can continue to grow and develop as a group.

Group C3: Slovakia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan/Moldova

Group C4: Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Georgia, Gibraltar

Group D1: Liechtenstein, Kazakhstan/Moldova, Andorra, Latvia

Group D2: Malta, Cyprus/Estonia, San Marino

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