UEFA Nations League giving underdogs a chance to shine
Thursday, June 5, 2025
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Think footballing success is just for elite countries at the top of the ladder? Not any more. The international landscape has been given a new lease of life up and down the rankings. Just ask San Marino…
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The UEFA Nations League continues to give national teams at all levels fresh opportunities and many have seized their moment in the sun, often against the odds and some in the most dramatic of circumstances. There’s several teams that will look back with real pride on their 2024/25 journey.
Heading into the final day in November last year, Wales were unsure of their fate in group B4. Standing on nine points, they were two behind leaders Türkiye, who were travelling to already-relegated Montenegro. To be in with a chance of finishing top, Wales had to beat Iceland in Cardiff and still hope that Montenegro did them a favour by beating the group leaders.
When Andri Guðjohnsen fired Iceland ahead in the seventh minute in Cardiff, heads dropped momentarily but hearts stayed strong. Enter Liam Cullen. Scoring his first two goals for his country, he helped Craig Bellamy’s side to a 2-1 lead at the interval. Over at the Stadion Kraj Bistrice, Montenegro were ahead by the same margin. A tense final 45 minutes loomed.
Cullen set up Tottenham Hotspur’s Brennan Johnson to score Wales’ third with a cool finish before Harry Wilson’s sweetly-struck, dipping drive from 20 yards settled matters. With Wales’ fate still out of their hands, they couldn’t be sure of promotion but a third Montenegro goal meant they had leapfrogged Türkiye into top spot.
Talking after the game at an atmospheric Cardiff City Stadium, Wilson said: “We didn’t know [we’d been promoted]. We saw at half-time that Türkiye were losing but then I think the fans told us halfway through the second half when they started singing, ‘we’re top of the league’… We’re buzzing and League A is the one we want to be in to play against the best teams.”
The result meant Craig Bellamy extended his unbeaten record as Wales boss to six games and gave his team a welcome boost to their World Cup qualifying hopes. But they hadn’t seen the last of Türkiye. Not to be denied, they seized their chance of promotion in a play-off, overcoming Hungary 6-1 on aggregate to take their place alongside Wales, Greece and Czechia – who topped their table and achieved automatic promotion.
A Greek epic
It had been a rollercoaster Nations League journey for Greece, who recorded a historic first win over England on 10 October 2024 thanks to a Vangelis Pavlidis winner in the 94th minute at Wembley. The team dedicated the victory to George Baldock, the Britishborn Greek international who tragically died earlier that week, aged just 31.
England turned the tables in Athens the following month with a 3-0 win. That ensured they eventually topped their pool with a better head-to-head record against Greece who agonisingly had to settle for second place despite registering 15 points and recording home and away wins against Finland and the Republic of Ireland.
“The Nations League has given this team the chance to improve…they have the future at their feet.”
Their play-off opponents from League A were Scotland who had narrowly avoided automatic relegation courtesy of captain Andy Robertson’s stoppage-time winner in Poland. When Steve Clarke’s team emerged from the first leg at the Stadio Georgios Karaiskáki with a 1-0 advantage, it looked ominous but a comprehensive 3-0 win at Hampden Park ensured that Greece would, after all, take their place in League A.
“The Nations League has given this team the chance to improve,” reacted head coach Ivan Jovanović. “As a result, expectations increase, but the team is meeting these expectations. It is a younger group and they have the future at their feet.”
Rapid rise for newcomers
Another team building a brighter future for themselves is Kosovo, who have been on a special journey as a team since they became a UEFA member in 2016.
Achieving home and away victories over Cyprus and Lithuania and finishing second to Romania in the group, they now find themselves in League B after a 5-2 aggregate win over Iceland in the 2024-25 play-offs. Reacting to the victory on social media, captain Amir Rrahmani wrote: “Seven years ago we started our journey to the Nations League in League D and today, after this historic victory, we are in B. Proud of all our teammates. More successes await us.”
Elsewhere in League C, Romania and Sweden enjoyed impressive campaigns, topping their tables thanks in part to healthy goal contributions from Răzvan Marin (6) and Alexander Isak (4). Joining them making an automatic jump to League B were Northern Ireland and North Macedonia. Only requiring a draw in Luxembourg to finish top, Michael O’Neill’s men let a two-goal lead slip but held on despite a nervy final 15 minutes. North Macedonia started their campaign with an underwhelming 1-1 draw away to the Faroe Islands but Blagoja Milevski’s team then proceeded to win all their remaining games.
That 1-1 result was one of three draws at home for the Faroe Islands but it was on the road where they took a big step up. With a population of 50,000, they have consistently punched above their weight over the past decade and were promoted to Nations League C in 2020. However, they’d endured a long wait for an away win, since September 2020 in fact, before they travelled to Armenia in November. There a first-half penalty from Viljormur Davidsen gave the visitors the win they had long craved, and the three vital points helped secure their place in League C for the next Nations League campaign.
Historic firsts
In League D, Moldova ensured they will be playing in League C for the next campaign after topping their table. They will line up against Latvia or Gibraltar and Luxembourg or Malta with those final play-offs taking place in March 2026. Joining them will be a team who deserve the final word when it comes to any retelling of the 2024/25 Nations League story.
Since they made their debut appearance in men’s senior international football, against Switzerland in November 1990, not one of the San Marino players has been able to say: “I scored the match winner” in a competitive game.
That all changed on Thursday 5 September 2024, when Nicko Sensoli pounced in the 53rd minute of their home match against Liechtenstein. It gave San Marino the first fully fledged win in their history – their only other recorded victory a friendly triumph over the same opponents in 2004 – and they followed that up with a 3-1 success in the corresponding away fixture.
“As people, as athletes, as men, they have shown what they are worth. I cried with the boys.”
As the final whistle sounded on that Monday in November at the Rheinpark Stadion, the San Marino bench emptied and delirious players poured onto the pitch to celebrate with the fans who had made the near 400-mile trip. More records had been broken. It was the first time the Serenissima had scored more than once in a competitive game and the first time they had scored three goals in any match to achieve their first promotion of any kind.
Head coach Roberto Cevoli had now led them to two wins in 10 games since taking charge in 2023. Previously, they had lost 199 of 211 fixtures and conceded 10 or more goals in seven games. They were 210th in the FIFA rankings. “These boys made history tonight,” said Marco Tura, the president of San Marino’s Football Federation. “As people, as athletes, as men, they have shown what they are worth. I cried with the boys.”
Stories like San Marino’s is further proof that the introduction of the Nations League has benefited the entire UEFA football family. The international calendar has been supercharged without additional games being added into the schedule. Replacing friendlies with a meaningful league pathway to greater opportunity can only be a good thing. Roll on 2026/27.
This is a piece from the official 2025 UEFA Nations League finals programme.