Battle for the elite: Ukrainian national football teams start in the League of Nations. All the details

Last year, the women's national team of Ukraine defended its place in Division B (the second highest) of the Women's League of Nations. In the fall, our team took third place in its League B group and managed to get ahead of Slovakia in the ranking of the third teams that avoided relegation to League C.

The Ukrainian players had to face the Bulgarian team in two playoff matches for the right to stay in Division B, which their rivals wanted to move to from Division C. Our girls coped with their task quite easily. In the first match at the Horda Arena stadium in the Bulgarian city of Kirzhali, they defeated their opponents 4-0. In the second game at the Mardan Stadium in Antalya, Turkey, the opponents scored three goals. Our national team goalkeeper Kateryna Samson from Vorskla kept her possessions "locked".

Our team, led by Volodymyr Pyatenko, now faces the task of trying to get into the elite Division A of the Women's League of Nations in the 2024/2025 season. Our national team, ranked 33rd in the FIFA rankings, includes representatives of Vorskla Poltava, Kryvyi Rih's Kryvbass, Kovalivka's Kolos, Kharkiv's Zhytlobud, Donetsk's Shakhtar, Turkish clubs Fomget and Galatasaray, French clubs Nice and Marseille, and Slovenian club Mura Nona. No players from Dynamo Kyiv, once one of the strongest women's clubs in Ukraine, are on the team.

New meetings with iconic rivals

The men's national teams of 55 UEFA associations are participants in the 2024/2025 Nations League. The winners of the three previous draws were Portugal, France and Spain. The Ukrainian national team remained in League B for the second season. As a result of the draw, the Yellow and Blues were placed in Group B1 along with the national teams of Albania, Georgia and the Czech Republic. For the first time, the England national team, which dropped out of the elite in the previous draw, will play in League B. The English rivals in Group B2 are Finland, Ireland and Greece.

Here is the calendar of matches of the national team of Ukraine

1st round, September 7. Ukraine - Albania

2nd round, September 10. Czech Republic - Ukraine

3rd round, October 11. Ukraine - Georgia

Round 4, October 14. Ukraine - Czech Republic

Round 5, November 16. Georgia - Ukraine

Round 6, November 19. Albania - Ukraine.

From Division B, four group winners will receive direct tickets to Division A. Austria, Norway, Slovenia and Kazakhstan are playing in the B3 quartet, while Wales, Iceland, Montenegro and Turkey are playing in Group B4.

And more about the regulations. The teams that will be in second place will play the third teams of Division A. The third teams of Division B will play butt matches with the second teams of League C to maintain their registration in Division B. The teams that will be in fourth place will go to Division C. It will be recalled that in the last draw of the 2022/2023 Nations League, the Ukrainian national team became the second in the Division B group, scoring 11 points, while the Scottish national team had 13 points.

In the 2020/2021 season, our team played in League A, then dropped out of Division B. And now there is only one task - to return to the elite division.

A little bit about our rivals in Group B1.

The Czech Republic is a participant in the final tournament of Euro 2024. The team has played in seven European Championships and won silver in 1996. The national teams of Ukraine and the Czech Republic have met five times. Our team has two wins, two matches ended in a draw, and our team lost one.

The Albanian national team is a participant in the Euro 2024 final tournament. The national teams of Ukraine and Albania have met six times. Five times our team won, and one match ended in a draw.

Our national team played 9 matches with the Georgian team, a participant in the Euro 2024 playoffs, with six wins and three draws. New meetings with iconic rivals are ahead.