No sooner had the Russian national team found out rivals in play-offs for the right to go to the World Cup, as a new draw awaited it.
On Thursday, December 16, the opponents were determined for the group stage of the League of Nations, which starts in June next year.
The national team began playing in the tournament in 2018 in the second-strongest division and has not yet managed to break into the elite.
In the first drawing, she conceded ahead of Sweden, and in the second - Hungary.
All 16 participants who made it to League B this year were divided into four baskets of four teams.
Valery Karpin's wards were in the second along with Finland, Norway and Scotland.
From other baskets, the Russians could get to the well-known Sweden, Serbia and Slovenia, but the organizers of the tournament divorced the team from Ukraine for political reasons.
However, the draw turned out to be as favorable to the national team as possible.
From the first basket, in which the teams that have taken off from the elite were determined, Russia got the weakest opponent at the moment - Iceland.
From the third - Israel, missing the stars from the sky.
Finally, of the latter - the modest Albania, which went for a promotion from League C.
However, Karpin, commenting on the results of the draw, did not agree that his team was in a weak group, instead calling it interesting.
“Icelanders are more power football, Israel is technical, Albania is similar to Israelis.
There will be interesting matches, the group is roughly even.
As for the goals, on the one hand, this is an important tournament, there are tasks, and on the other, I want to try new players.
We'll have to combine, but this should not affect the result, "- quotes the words of a specialist Telegram-channel of the Russian national team.
Among other interesting results, it is worth noting that Ukraine and Armenia have entered the same quartet of League B, which will also face off against Scotland and Ireland.
The Ukrainians will try to return to the elite division, from where they were relegated following the results of the previous rally.
The strongest league gave the fans a lot of interesting things.
In the second group, there will be a confrontation between Spain and Portugal, and in the fourth - Belgium and the Netherlands.
The third can be safely called the "quartet of death", because there the lot determined Italy, Germany and England.
Hungary, which found itself in the same company with them, again, like at Euro 2020, was not lucky.
The first group, which brought together France, Denmark, Croatia and Austria, turned out to be a little smoother.
The first four rounds of the group stage in all leagues will take place in the first half of June (2-14) and will be an excellent preparatory stage for the teams that made it to the world championship in Qatar. The remaining two will take place on September 22-27. In the elite division, the group winners will compete for the trophy in the final four in 2023. In the rest, they will earn the right to be promoted. The weakest, on the other hand, will go in the division below, if you do not take into account the D league.
The results of the draw for the Russian national team, at first glance, can be called more than successful. From the first basket, the domestic team could get to strong Sweden or Bosnia and Herzegovina, but got Iceland. The Vikings surprised everyone in the last decade, having achieved historic successes for themselves: a sensational advance to the Euro 2016 quarterfinals and the 2018 World Cup. This performance also allowed them to be in the strongest division of the League of Nations, where the Icelanders held out for two draws.
However, in recent years, the team has passed. The main creator of the local football miracle, Heimir Hallgrimsson, left his post after the World Cup. Some leaders ended their careers as goalkeeper Hannes Halldoursson, others just got older. First of all, this concerns the number one star of the national team - Gylfi Thor Sigurdsson, who defends the colors of Everton. The midfielder will turn 33 in September. And new young stars have not appeared yet, although one can pay attention to the winger Albert Güdmündsson from the Dutch "AZ" and the 18-year-old prodigy Isak-Bergmann Johannesson, who recently transferred to Danish Copenhagen for € 4.5 million.
The change of generations has led to a decline in results.
The Icelanders failed to make it to either Euro 2020 or the World Cup 2022.
Moreover, in the selection for the last tournament, they took only fifth place in their group, letting North Macedonia, Romania and Armenia go ahead and beating only Liechtenstein.
The departure from the elite division of the League of Nations was not long in coming.
The Albanian national team faced similar problems, which in 2015 qualified for the first major tournament in history - the continental championship.
There they managed to perform with dignity and even beat Romania.
However, in 2017, the Balkan team left Giovanni De Biasi, who had headed it for six years, and left in his place an assistant, Christian Panucci, who worked in Russia at the headquarters of Roberto Mancini.
In the future, the "Mountain Eagles" showed much more modest results: the fourth position in the group in the qualifying tournament for Euro 2020 and the third - in the qualification for the World Cup 2022.
However, the last cycle turned out to be quite successful.
The team to the end pretended to hit the joints and was only two points behind Poland.
He also managed to advance in class in the League of Nations on his second attempt.
Albania also lacks notable performers.
Traditionally, many footballers from this country move to Serie A. Almost all the leading players have chosen this career path: the young central defender Marash Kumbula (Roma), the main star Elseid Husai (Lazio) and the main goalkeeper and captain Etrit Berisha ("SPAL"), as well as his competitor Tomas Strakosha ("Lazio").
The Israeli national team looks no weaker than its rivals, which only once in history reached the final stage of a major tournament.
It happened back in 1970.
Then the team performed with dignity at the World Championships in Mexico.
Since then, when trying to qualify for the World Cup or Euro, he invariably failed.
For the championship of the continent-2020, the team got the opportunity to qualify through the joints, but lost to Scotland in the penalty shootout.
Each time, the Israelis have a good selection of players, but are unable to cope with the curse of the major forums.
But in the League of Nations, they immediately managed to rise to division B. In the previous competition, they took third place in the quartet with the Czech Republic, Scotland and Slovakia, gaining eight points.
This time, Willie Ruttensteiner's wards intend to fight for getting into League A. They have chances for this.
First of all, the opponent's attack line looks powerful.
The main scorer is Eran Zahavi.
Even though the PSV striker is 34 years old, with age he began to score only more often.
In 70 appearances for the national team, he has 33 goals.
Sean Weissmann, who became the top scorer of the Austrian championship and who moved to the Spanish Valladolid last year, is capable of replacing him.
Helpful in the national team and Munas Dabbur from the German "Hoffenheim", who scored 13 goals in his squad.
Of the athletes well known to Russian fans, ex-Rubin and CSKA midfielder Bibras Natkho is still in the ranks.
Despite his age (33 years), the midfielder not only continues to be called up for the national team, but also retains the captain's armband.