2020–21 UEFA Nations League B
International football competition
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2020–21 UEFA Nations League B was the second division of the 2020–21 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the second season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA.[1]
Austria
Czech Republic
Hungary
Wales
Northern Ireland
Slovakia
Turkey
Bulgaria| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 3 September – 18 November 2020 |
| Teams | 16 |
| Promoted | Austria Czech Republic Hungary Wales |
| Relegated | Northern Ireland Slovakia Turkey Bulgaria |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 47 |
| Goals scored | 104 (2.21 per match) |
| Attendance | 28,883 (615 per match) |
| Top scorer |  Erling Haaland (6 goals) |
← 2018–19 2022–23 → | |
Format
Following a format change from the first season, League B was expanded from 12 to 16 teams.[2] The league consisted of UEFA members ranked from 17 to 32 in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League overall ranking, split into four groups of four. Each team played six matches within their group, using the home-and-away round-robin format on double matchdays in September, October and November 2020.[3] The winners of each group were promoted to the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League A, and the fourth-placed team of each group was relegated to the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League C.[4]
Teams
Team changes
The following were the team changes of League B from the 2018–19 season:
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The following team changes were initially set to occur in League B, but did not after no teams were relegated due to the format change by UEFA:
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Seeding
In the 2020–21 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2018–19 Nations League overall ranking, with a slight modification: teams that were originally relegated in the previous season were ranked immediately below teams promoted prior to the format change.[5][6] The seeding pots for the league phase were confirmed 4 December 2019,[7] and were based on the access list ranking.[4][8]
The draw for the league phase took place at the Beurs van Berlage Conference Centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 3 March 2020, 18:00 CET.[9][10][11][12] Each group contained one team from each pot.
Groups
The original fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 3 March 2020 following the draw.[13] On 17 June 2020, the UEFA Executive Committee adjusted the league phase schedule for October and November 2020 to allow for the completion of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs.[14][15] Following the change, a revised schedule for the October and November 2020 fixtures was released by UEFA on 26 June 2020.[16][17]
Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group 1
- The Romania v Norway match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Romania after being cancelled as Norway could not travel to the match due to a positive SARS-CoV-2 test in the team.
Romania  | 1–1 | Northern Ireland |
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| Northern Ireland | 1–5 | Norway |
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| Northern Ireland | 0–1 | Austria |
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| Northern Ireland | 1–1 | Romania |
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Group 2
Scotland  | 1–0 | Czech Republic |
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| Czech Republic | 1–0 |  Israel |
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Group 3
- Tied on head-to-head points (2) and head-to-head goal difference (0). Head-to-head away goals: Serbia 2, Turkey 0.
| Turkey | 0–1 | Hungary |
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| Turkey | 2–2 |  Serbia |
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Group 4
| Bulgaria | 1–1 |  Republic of Ireland |
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| Wales | 1–0 | Bulgaria |
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| Republic of Ireland | 0–1 |  Finland |
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| Finland | 1–0 | Republic of Ireland |
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| Bulgaria | 0–1 | Wales |
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| Wales | 1–0 | Republic of Ireland |
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Goalscorers
There were 104 goals scored in 47 matches, for an average of 2.21 goals per match.
6 goals
5 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Christoph Baumgartner- Karim Onisiwo
- Marcel Sabitzer
- Louis Schaub
- Alessandro Schöpf
Dimitar Iliev- Bozhidar Kraev
Vladimír Coufal- Vladimír Darida
- Bořek Dočkal
- Michael Krmenčík
- Zdeněk Ondrášek
- Jakub Pešek
- Tomáš Souček
- Matěj Vydra
Robin Lod- Robert Taylor
Zsolt Kalmár- Norbert Könyves
- Nemanja Nikolić
- Roland Sallai
- Dávid Sigér
- Dominik Szoboszlai
- Kevin Varga
Ilay Elmkies- Manor Solomon
Liam Boyce- Josh Magennis
- Paddy McNair
- Gavin Whyte
Mohamed Elyounoussi- Ghayas Zahid
Shane Duffy
Denis Alibec- Eric Bicfalvi
- Dragoș Grigore
- Alexandru Maxim
- George Pușcaș
Denis Cheryshev- Mário Fernandes
- Vyacheslav Karavayev
- Daler Kuzyayev
- Magomed Ozdoyev
Ryan Fraser
Sergej Milinković-Savić- Filip Mladenović
- Dušan Vlahović
Michal Ďuriš- Ján Greguš
- Marek Hamšík
- Róbert Mak
- Ivan Schranz
Hakan Çalhanoğlu- Cenk Tosun
- Ozan Tufan
- Cengiz Ünder
David Brooks- Daniel James
- Jonny Williams
- Neco Williams
- Harry Wilson
1 own goal
- Joel Abu Hanna (against Czech Republic)
- Stuart Dallas (against Norway)
Overall ranking
The 16 League B teams were ranked 17th to 32nd overall in the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules:[4][68]
- The teams finishing first in the groups were ranked 17th to 20th according to the results of the league phase.
- The teams finishing second in the groups were ranked 21st to 24th according to the results of the league phase.
- The teams finishing third in the groups were ranked 25th to 28th according to the results of the league phase.
- The teams finishing fourth in the groups were ranked 29th to 32nd according to the results of the league phase.
| Rnk | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | B4 | Wales |
6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | +6 | 16 |
| 18 | B1 | Austria |
6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 13 |
| 19 | B2 | Czech Republic |
6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 12 |
| 20 | B3 | Hungary |
6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 4 | +3 | 11 |
| 21 | B4 | Finland |
6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 12 |
| 22 | B1 | Norway |
6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 10 |
| 23 | B2 | Scotland |
6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 10 |
| 24 | B3 |  Russia |
6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 12 | −3 | 8 |
| 25 | B2 | Israel |
6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 8 |
| 26 | B1 | Romania |
6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 9 | −1 | 8 |
| 27 | B3 | Serbia |
6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 6 |
| 28 | B4 | Republic of Ireland |
6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | −3 | 3 |
| 29 | B3 | Turkey |
6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 8 | −2 | 6 |
| 30 | B2 | Slovakia |
6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 | −5 | 4 |
| 31 | B4 | Bulgaria |
6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 7 | −5 | 2 |
| 32 | B1 | Northern Ireland |
6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 11 | −7 | 2 |
Notes
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, all matches scheduled for September 2020 were played behind closed doors.[19][20]
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the match was played behind closed doors.
- The Romania v Norway match was cancelled and awarded as a 3–0 win to Romania after the Norway national team were prohibited from travelling to Romania by the Norwegian government due to a positive SARS-CoV-2 test in the squad.[29]