How could the Nations League help Wales qualify for Euro

League A

Pot 1: Netherlands, France, Germany

Pot 2: Iceland, Switzerland, Belgium

Pot 3: Poland, Italy, Portugal

Pot 4: Croatia, England, Spain




League B

Pot 1: Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia

Pot 2: Turkey, Sweden, Russia

Pot 3: Northern Ireland, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Austria

Pot 4: Denmark, Republic of Ireland, Wales





League C

Pot 1: Israel, Albania, Scotland

Pot 2: Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary

Pot 3: Cyprus, Bulgaria, Norway, Slovenia

Pot 4: Lithuania, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania







League D

Group 1: Andorra, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Georgia

Group 2: San Marino, Moldova, Luxembourg, Belarus

Group 3: Kosovo, Malta, Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan

Group 4: Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Armenia, Macedonia






How do the leagues work?

Teams play every other opponent twice (one home fixture and one away), and the nation that finishes at the top of each table will gain promotion into the league above them while those who finish at the bottom will drop into the league below them.

So if Wales - who are in League B - finish at the top of the table after their four fixtures, they will be promoted into League A. But if they finish bottom, they will be relegated to League C. If they come second, they will remain in the same league. They will play at the new level in the next competition which gets underway in 2020.


Given that Wales only have two opponents, they will only play on four of the allocated six matchdays.

On the other two allocated game days, they will play friendlies against Spain and Albania.

It's worth mentioning, the winners of each group in League A will face each other in the Nations League finals in June, 2019, when the Nations League winner will be crowned.






How could the Nations League help Wales qualify for Euro 2020?

Ok, the actual main qualification process for Euro 2020 has thankfully been simplified, with the top two teams in each of the 10 groups qualifying automatically. The group draw takes place in December, after the conclusion of this year's Nations League.

The seedings for qualification will be determined by how teams performed in the Nations League and the fixtures will played between March and November 2019.

Those qualifiers will account for 20 of the 24 competing teams at the tournament in the normal way. The final four teams to make it through will come from the Nations League play-offs, with one from League A, one from League B, one from League C and one from League D.

In theory, the winners of each of the four groups within each League will play in a play-off semi final, with the two winners facing off for a place at Euro 2020.

However, inevitably some teams will already have qualified through the normal qualifiers. In that case, their place will go to the next highest-ranked team from their Nations League tier (not necessarily the second placed team in their group).

So, if Wales fail to qualify for Euro 2020 through the normal route, there's no doubt the Nations League gives them a real chance of a second bite of the cherry if they perform well.

For example, if they finish third in their Euro 2020 qualifying group (as they did in the World Cup qualifiers) but top their Nations League group they will still have a shot in the play-offs.

Good explanation at last One question though - if Wales did come top in Pot 4 would they replace whoever was bottom in League A Pot 4 - which could be England

Good explanation at last One question though - if Wales did come top in Pot 4 would they replace whoever was bottom in League A Pot 4 - which could be England

Its a random draw within each league as I understand it. The biggest threat to England is finshing as one of the two worst last places. Iceland will be one but the 2 worst finishers end up in pot 2 for the euro qualifying draw in December.

How come the Dutch are in league 1,been poor for a while now.