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National coach Julian Nagelsmann
Photo: Federico Gambarini / dpa
The German national soccer team will play in the group phase of the new Nations League season against the Netherlands, European Championship opponents Hungary and Bosnia-Herzegovina. This was the result of the draw on Thursday in Paris. The DFB selection was sorted into Group 3 in the A-League.
The matches begin in September after the home European Championship (June 14th to July 14th), which from a German perspective is outstanding, and the remaining match days are scheduled for October and November. It is possible that Julian Nagelsmann, who watched the draw on site, will no longer be the national coach: his contract only runs until the European Championships.
Tournament also important for the World Cup
Germany got into a relatively easy group, as a look at the competition shows. Croatia, Portugal, Poland and Scotland meet in Group 1. Three top teams, Italy, Belgium and France, are playing in Group 2, plus Israel. Group 4 consists of Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and Serbia.
On Thursday, 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations were in the draw: Russia is still excluded because of the war of aggression against Ukraine.
In the 2024/25 season, a quarter-final will be played for the first time in the Nations League, through which four of the 16 European starting places for the 2026 World Cup will be awarded. The four group winners of the A-League are no longer automatically qualified for the final tournament of the best four nations in the summer. Playoffs will be held together with the group runners-up in March 2025 and will be drawn in November.
But even this rule would only have been enough for the national team to advance for the first time in the previous three editions of the tournament: in 2020/21, the DFB selection with Joachim Löw came second, but what will be remembered most is the 6-0 defeat in Spain in November 2020 .
Germany without great success in the Nations League
In the last 2022/23 season, Germany - under Nagelsmann's predecessor Hansi Flick - only finished third in the group. In the premiere season of 2018/19, at that time still with groups of three, the DFB selection was the last to avoid relegation to the B league only through a later increase. This danger is now increasing again: In the coming season, the third-placed teams in the A-League will have to play in playoffs against the runners-up in the B-League to avoid relegation. So far only the last team has been relegated to the next lower league.
Out of 16 games so far, Germany has only won three with four defeats and nine draws. The best goalscorer is Timo Werner, who moved to Tottenham Hotspur in the winter, with seven goals - in total, the national team conceded 29 more goals than they scored themselves (24).
kjo/sid/dpa