The UEFA Nations League has started, and this is the first of the Nations League/Concacaf Nations League predictions. Today we will be analyzing group A of the UEFA Nations League.
Teams:
Belgium
France
Türkiye
Italy
The interesting part about this group is, that 4 years ago, the ranking would have been France, Italy, Belgium, Turkey. The ranking has certainly changed since then, as Italy have failed to qualify for the World Cup, for the past 3 times, and Belgium are now past their golden generation. France on the other hand, have seem to have gotten even better, and the same goes to Turkey despite being knocked out of the group stages of the 2026 World Cup. As of the time of writing, Belgium are top of the table after beating Italy 2-0, and France beat Turkey 1-0. Italy are at the bottom of the table, and I can’t say I’m really surprised. Italy failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup after losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina on penalties. It’s honestly sad to see that despite the 2-0 loss, the Italian goalkeeper,
Gianluigi Donnarumma, has managed a 9.0 match rating. For reference, that match rating would win Man of the Match almost every single game. This rating is indeed a testament to the Italian goalkeepers ability, but also a testament to how many shots and pressure Italy were under the entire game. Mind you this is 8 years after Belgium’s golden generation, and Italy won the Euros only 5 years ago. I do, indeed, expect great things from Turkey as they have a really good squad, and have massive individual talent. They dominated France in their 1-0 lose. They took 11 shots compared to France’s 10, and had 5 on target compared to France’s 4. This was a very strong performance from Turkey, but the score line can be deceptive. Finally, France have the greatest squad on paper in the entire world. Almost all players in their starting 11 are the best in the world. Their 2-0 loss to Spain in the 2026 World Cup makes it look like they’re a bunch of superstars who can’t play, but that is far from the truth. Heading into that semifinal against Spain, they were by far the favorites to win the competition, and they didn’t just beat teams, they dominated them. France just didn’t look like the France we saw in the later stages of the competition when they went into the semifinal against Spain. France have since then gotten a new coach, Zinedine Zidane. Zidane is most known for is infamous 3-peat run(3 champions leagues in a row) with Real Madrid. Even if France had kept Deschamp, I still think there going to win this group.
Final Prediction for group A:
France
Belgium
Turkey
Italy
I think Turkey have the potential to get into 2nd ahead of Belgium, but we just haven’t seen enough consistency for me to put them ahead.
Thank you for reading my Group A predictions for the UEFA Nations League, and don’t forget to miss group B.