Hungary has to watch the Nations League final tournament after all. The DFB conqueror cannot save the success to the finish, European champions Italy are defeated in the decisive last game. This means that the Squadra Azzura will play in the final round, for which Croatia and the Netherlands have already qualified.
European soccer champion Italy has secured victory in Germany’s group A3 in the Nations League and thus participation in the final tournament next summer. On the last day of the preliminary round, the Squadra Azzurra won the group final against the previous leaders Hungary 2-0 (1-0).
Coach Roberto Mancini’s team, who had unexpectedly missed the forthcoming World Cup finals in Qatar (20 November to 18 December), caught the Magyars despite their 1-0 coup against the German team in Leipzig last Friday .
Italy is the third participant in the Nations League finals. One day earlier, World Cup runners-up Croatia and ex-European champions Netherlands had already qualified for the final tournament. The fourth and last place will be played out by the premiere winner Portugal and Germany’s World Cup preliminary round opponent Spain. Defending champions and world champions France clearly missed first place in Croatia’s Group A1.
The goals for coach Roberto Mancini’s team were scored by Giacomo Raspadori (27′) and Federico Dimarco (52′). In the direct duel for group victory, both teams offered a committed exchange of blows from the start. Raspadori scored for Italy, who had bettered before the break and had not qualified for the World Cup in Qatar, after a string of errors in the Hungarian back line.
After the break, Hungary pressed for the equalizer with the four Bundesliga professionals Peter Gulacsi, Willi Orban and Dominik Szoboszlai (all RB Leipzig) and Andras Schäfer (Union Berlin). Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made several brilliant saves, including against long-time Bundesliga player Adam Szalai in his last international for Hungary. Vincenzo Grifo from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg did not play for Italy.
Romania was relegated from the B Division in Group 3. Although the Carpathian team won against Bosnia-Herzegovina, who had already been promoted to the A Division, 4-1 (1-0) in Bucharest, they were behind rivals Montenegro who had the same number of points because of the worse goal difference the disadvantage. Finland saved themselves with a 2-0 (0-0) win over the Montenegrins.
The Monday games in the third-class group C4 were only statistically significant after Georgia’s promotion to the B division and Gibraltar’s fixed participation in the so-called playouts for the two relegated teams to the D class. The group winners prevailed 2-1 (1-0) at the bottom, while North Macedonia lost 0-1 (0-0) to Bulgaria. In Group 4 of the D-Division, too, Estonia’s ascent had been perfect even before the Balts finished 4-0 (1-0) at San Marino, who had no points at the bottom.
