REYKJAVIK — England's Raheem Sterling converted a 90th minute penalty to snatch a 1-0 win away to Iceland in their opening Nations League match on Saturday after the home side themselves missed a spot kick in stoppage time that would have salvaged a draw.
Sterling got the decisive goal from the spot, after a disappointingly drab game, when Sverrir Ingi Ingason was harshly ruled to have handled the England striker's shot.
The Czech Republic will go ahead with next week's UEFA Nations League match against Scotland but will field a different team than the one that beat Slovakia on Friday due to COVID-19 concerns, a team spokesman said on Saturday.
Shortly after their 3-1 victory against Slovakia, the Czech FA said in a statement that Monday's game against Scotland would not take place due to the "current situation with COVID-19."
ANNOUNCEMENT:
So the 2019-20 season was a mess, we all know that. On top of everything else that had been cancelled or postponed, we added the Tokyo Olympics to that list. Once upon a time, they were set to take off July 24, 2020.
Why is this so important, you ask? Well, that was supposed to be the date the USWNT returned to play. With the Games now being postponed until July 2021, we have a while before these badass ladies return to the pitch.
Borussia Dortmund star signing and Belgium international Thomas Meunier gave a reporter his frank and honest opinion about what he thinks of the UEFA Nations League. Meunier said that the added strain of this new competition, which begins its second iteration this week, is too much for players.
Gareth Bale will consider a return to the Premier League if his current club Real Madrid allow him to end his stint in Spain, the Wales international has said.
The 31-year-old was on the verge of leaving for Chinese club Jiangsu Suning last year before the deal fell through and he barely featured for Real in their run to the LaLiga title when the campaign resumed after the COVID-19 stoppage.
Despite winning four Champions League titles with Real, Bale has divided opinion in Spain because of a perceived lack of commitment and poor injury record.
In 2019, Concacaf held the largest-ever Gold Cup, with 16 teams creating an event that was actually pretty exciting. For the 2021 Gold Cup format, Concacaf is doubling down on the 16-team field but adding some weird new spice to the tournament — and for some reason an odd choice for its first guest participant in over a decade.
In a strictly sporting sense, the worst part of the pandemic was definitely the postponement of Euro 2020. On the one hand it deprived us of a month-long carnival of joy (the expanded 2016 tourney was thrilling with Wales and Iceland getting out of pocket and Portugal claiming top prize despite winning only one match in regular time), and on the other it reminded us of how dumb it is to host a major international tournament in 12 different countries (Did you ask for this? I didn’t ask for this).
But the countdown is once again on with Euro 2020 Part Deux just 283 days away!
BERN — Europe's national teams will emerge from a 10-month hiatus as the second edition of the UEFA Nations League kicks off this week, still under the shadow the COVID-19 pandemic which brought football to a standstill earlier this year.
There has been no international action in the region since last November and the matches which were played then, such as Italy's 9-1 demolition of Armenia and Germany's 6-1 win over Northern Ireland, now seem to belong to a different era.
France intend to give 17-year-old Eduardo Camavinga his first caps over the next week when they meet Sweden and Croatia in the Nations League, coach Didier Deschamps said on Monday.
The teenage midfielder, who earned rave reviews in his first full Ligue 1 season with Rennes, received a call-up for Saturday’s match in Stockholm and next Tuesday’s clash at the Stade de France after Paul Pogba withdrew after testing positive for the COVID-19 virus.