We are only halfway through the international break at this point, but we’ve certainly gotten some pretty surprising results so far. In Europe, it seems like a couple of teams have their mind on the World Cup already, and that led to awkward lineups in their Nations League matchups, which in turn got them unexpected results. We’re talking about England, and Germany who both lost their matchups in the Nations League. The loss to Italy, a non-World Cup team, relegated England from the top tier Nations League division. That’s a concern heading into the World Cup for sure. We want to talk about the teams though, that have shown they can be real contenders, and not the ones who are showing warning signs that they may flop!
Portugal Looks Scary
Keep in mind that this article is being written before the Portugal vs Spain game that will take place this Tuesday. However, we’ve been on the Portugal train for a while. This team is not going to ask Cristiano Ronaldo to carry them, on the contrary they have a lot of talent upfront outside of Ronaldo. As we said last week, Cristiano can be the perfect number 9 for this team as he’ll still be able to command plenty of attention from opposing defenses. While the guys that play around him get a lot of open shots. That’s exactly how Diogo Dalot scored two of the team’s four goals against the Czech Republic outside shots. They may be quite old in the back, and that worries us somewhat, but they are a very talented squad overall.
How Much Can We Really Take From Brazil and Argentina’s Wins?
Both of the South American powers won in the first game of the international break. Argentina’s win allowed us to see an amazing Leo Messi goal that got a lot of fanboys excited. The game was against Honduras, so we need to pump the brakes on Argentina at least until we see them against tougher competition. On paper though, the team does look a lot more balanced than it’s potentially ever been on Messi’s time with the national team.
Brazil on the other hand walked all over a Ghana team that is not supposed to be that easy. Ghana was even welcoming Athletic Bilbao’s Iñaki Williams to the squad. They want to pair him up with the Ayew brothers, and plenty of players on that Ghana squad that have a ton of international experience. It’s fair to say that Ghana has an older squad overall, still Brazil made it look easy, and they are looking good going into the World Cup. Just like we talked about Portugal, the team has a ton of options to choose from. Much more so than most squads that are headed to Qatar at the end of the year.
Are The Netherlands Going To Surprise People?
We could make the argument that other than maybe Hungary, who beat Germany, no other European squad has had more impressive wins than the Dutch squad. They beat Poland, and Belgium in their two Nations League matchups. It was certainly a tough group to be in, and they won 5 out of their 6 games. This team maybe doesn’t have the offensive firepower that some of the other squads that we talked about have.
It’s still a very balanced team that can be very dynamic, and with Virgil Van Dijk returning to form they boast one of the best defenses in the world. If there’s a big winner from the recent slate of UEFA Nations League games it’s them. They have a really easy group that they should carve through in Qatar, and from there, in the knock-out stage anything can happen!
