UEFA Nations League: 5 countries that shone and 5 countries that flopped

Flop #4 Belgium

Belgium v Iceland - UEFA Nations League A

Belgium are currently the joint-highest ranked team on the FIFA rankings, and were expected to top their group with relative ease.

The much vaunted ‘golden generation’ of players finally lived up to their billing in the summer when Eden Hazard and co. guided the country to her best ever finish at a World Cup, after dispatching England for the third spot in Russia.

The Red Devils have some of the best players in the world, world class in all departments who ply their trades at the biggest clubs in Europe, and thus were expected to make easy pickings of a group also containing Switzerland and Iceland.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan for The Red Devils as they won their opening three matches, and headed into their last match against Switzerland needing just a draw to progress to the final four of the Nations League as expected.

They raced into a two-goal lead curtsey Thorgan Hazard, and even the most sceptic Belgian would have been forgiven for already looking ahead to knowing their opponents for the last four clashes.

However, what followed was an entirely unbelievable tale, as Switzerland rallied back to record a 5-2 victory courtesy a Seferovic inspired hat-trick which consigned the Belgians to a 5-2 defeat, prompting a rant from Martinez who said that the Belgians forgot how to defend.

Belgium would have looked to use their World Cup performance as momentum, and built upon it with a credible showing at this inaugural Nations League tournament and all seemed to be going to plan until Switzerland spoiled the party.

Flop #3 Iceland

Iceland lost all four of their Nations League matches

One of the biggest footballing fairytale stories in recent years – Iceland made the world stand up and take notice of them when they sealed their first ever qualification for a major tournament when they debuted at EURO 2016, which was more impressive considering the fact that they routed the Netherlands to achieve this feat.

They followed that up with some more breathtaking displays at the tournament proper, holding Portugal to a draw, and topping them in the group before dispatching England in the round of 16 courtesy a hard fought 2-1 victory.

They eventually bowed out to hosts France by a 5-2 scoreline in the quarter-final, but not before winning the world over with their display of courage and guts on the field, as well as the passion and camaraderie of their travelling contingent (about 10% of their entire population) in the stands.

Anybody who thought their performances in 2016 were a fluke got the shock of their lives, as the Nordic Nation made further history by becoming the smallest nation by population (just over 30,000) to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and they did so by topping a star-studded Croatia in their qualification group.

Even though they underperformed at the Mundial, losing all three matches and finishing bottom of their group, the progress made by the Scandinavians in recent years meant a lot of people expected them to punch above their weights in the Nations League.

They were drawn alongside Switzerland and Belgium in Group 2 of League A, and even though no one quite expected them to top the group by virtue of the strength of their opponents, it was expected that they would give a good account of themselves owing to the impressiveness of their performances in recent years.

However, what followed was a total capitulation, as the Icelanders failed to muster a single point, losing all four of their group matches, which has seen them drop to 36th on the FIFA rankings 9which is sure to reduce by the next release), having recently enjoyed an all-time high of 18th position in the world as recently as March of 2018.

Iceland were expected to build on their successes of recent years by stamping their authority on the Nations League, but their performances which saw them relegated to League B left a whole lot to be desired.