UEFA Nations League

West Ham midfielder Declan Rice’s chances of being named in the next England squad have received a significant boost after the Football Association formally applied to FIFA to have him declared as an English player. The 20-year old who was born on Kingston-upon-Thames, qualified to play for both England and Ireland, with both his grandparents hailing from Cork.  That led ...

Gareth Southgate is likely to sign in the next few days a new 4-year deal which will see him continue to manage England until 2022, with confirmation expected before he names his next international squad for the upcoming Nation’s League matches with Spain and Croatia on Thursday. Southgate was appointed interim manager 2 years ago after Sam Allardyce was sacked ...

The first international break of the season has been one to forget for the Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill. A facile 1-1 draw away against a makeshift Poland side on Tuesday night ended a horrible fortnight for the former Celtic manager. The embarrassing 4-1 loss in Wales last week was preceded by the capitulation in the World Cup play-off at home to Denmark last November. ...

Three months after their celebrated run to the World Cup semi-finals, England received a harsh reality check from a dominant Spanish side on Saturday night at Wembley. Luis Enrique’s first competitive game as Spain head-coach saw his team show fantastic character to come from behind to beat the Three Lions 2-1. In truth, England showed grit, guts and no shortage of industry, but they were outplayed for ...

Wales produced a scintillating display to demolish the Republic of Ireland 4 -1 in Cardiff on Thursday evening. Ryan Giggs will be extremely pleased by the sheer quality of the performance given by his side and especially the brilliant individual showings from his young midfielders David Brooks and Ethan Ampadu. For the Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill, this devastating result and performance in what has been ...

Most recent competitive meeting: This match will be the first-ever meeting between the teams. Match Stats: Northern Ireland have won 10 of their last 14 home matches losing only to Croatia, Switzerland and twice to Germany. The Northern Ireland defence has kept 8 clean sheets in their last 10 home victories. Bosnia failed to reach the World Cup in Russia ...

  Most recent competitive meeting: 9th October 2017- Wales 0 v Ireland 1 Match Stats: Wales have failed to win in their last eight meetings with the Republic of Ireland. Wales have never beaten the Republic of Ireland in a competitive fixture. Ireland are unbeaten in their last seven away competitive matches against the Welsh, including the one-nil win over Wales in October 2017. Gareth Bale has been on the scoresheet in five of ...

The UEFA Nations League Trophy A small step in the right direction Forget the complexity of the format, which may well hamstring the new tournament in its infancy. Try to ignore the fair comments about tinkering and trying to reinvent the wheel. For what it’s worth, UEFA may well have stumbled across a good idea, somewhere in the muddle and ...

At a time when international breaks are widely seen as unwanted, tedious and potentially dangerous breaks from the ongoing domestic season, UEFA has devised a plan to put international football back on the agenda. It is one of the biggest shake up of international football on the continent in decades and one that is already proving to be divisive. There ...