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Key events
4 min: Turkey 0-0 Italy
Raspadori jinks one way and the other, then fires uncharacteristically wide from a tight angle. I love Raspadori: he lacks an all-round game to be truly elite but normally is deadly with his finishing. The sort of player that would have 20 finishing on Championship manager, but have an otherwise average set of stats.
2 min: Northern Ireland 0-0 Hungary
Looks like Hungary are lining up in a 4-3-2-1, almost a Christmas tree formation. Szoboszlai is one of two players in the No 10 role.
Peeeeeeeep!
We are underway in almost all of the games. Belgium v France is slightly delayed.
Belgium and France are now out of the tunnel. Almost all the photographers are trained on Zinedine Zidane as he takes his place in the dugout, dressed head to toe in dark suit, dark shirt, dark tie. It’s a good look.
A massive tifo, spelling out ‘WE ARE BELGIUM’ (in English?!) adorns the terraces at the King Baudouin Stadium.
The teams are out! We’ll have the anthems now. There really is nothing that holds a candle to Il Canto degli Italiani, in my book.
There is some sort of delay in Brussels, where neither Belgium or France are yet to emerge. Ominously, Sweet Caroline is playing over the tannoy.
Michael O’Neill, Northern Ireland head coach, speaks to the BBC:
We know all about Szoboszlai, and the quality he can bring, we see it every week in the Premier League. But Hungary are a very good team. We do feel confident at home, though. We have won seven out of nine in the last wee period and the only defeat was to Germany, a game we gelt aggrieved to lose. So we’re feeling good.
Ruairi McConville comes in for the injured Dan Ballard, the Sunderland centre-back will be a big miss for Norther Ireland. Shea Charles, just 22, captains the side. The average age of Michael O’Neill’s XI is just 23!
For Hungary, Tamas Szucs replaces the injured Damir Redzic.
Northern Ireland v Hungary team news
Northern Ireland: P Charles, Hume, Brown, Atcheson, McConville, Brown, Devenny, S Charles, Galbraith, Kelly, Price, Donley.
Subs: Hazard, Peacock-Farrell, Devlin, Forbes, Charles, O’Neill, Smyth, Morrison, McNair, Spencer, Graham, Magennis.
Hungary: B Toth, Kerkez, Csinger, Orban, Bolla, Schafer, Csongvai, Jurek, Szoboszlai, T Szucs, Lukacs.
Subs: Gundel-Takacs, Pecsi, Osvath, K. Szucs, Markgraf, Vitalis, Barany, Nagy, Varkonyi, M. Toth, A. Toth, Doktorics.
Much like France, Italy are almost completely different to XI that started against Belgium. Sandro Tonali and Pio Esposito are the only outfield survivors and the headline news is that the latter’s brother, Sebastiano, is also handed his debut: the Esposito brothers are first to start for the Azzurri since Aldo & Luigi Cevenini in January 1915! Another notable inclusion is Brentford’s Michael Kayode. I can’t believe how long it has taken for Italy to hand the right-back his debut, considering the 22-year-old has been one of the best full-backs in Europe for nearly a year now. But here we are.
Turkey v Italy team news
Turkey 3-4-3: Bayinder; Demiral, Çelik, Kabak; Aydin, Kökçu, Özcan, Elmali; Arda Güler, Yilmaz, Uzun.
Subs: Akayin, Akturkoglu, Ege Tiknaz, Gul, Sengezer, Bardakci, Yuksek, Can Kahveci, Akgun, Kadioglu, Eskihellac, Kocuk.
Italy 4-3-3: Donnarumma; Kayode, Scalvini, Bastoni, Ruggeri; Frattesi, Tonali, Fagioli; Raspadori, P.Esposito, S.Esposito
Subs: Carnesecchi, Vicario: Calafiori, Di Lorenzo, Ghilardi: Doumbia, Romano, Mandragora: Cambiaghi, Kean, Vergara, Scamacca
Belgium make two changes from the side that beat Italy. Club Brugge’s Joaquin Seys, heavily linked with Manchester United in the summer, comes in for Brighton’s Maxim De Cuyper, at left-back. Chelsea’s injury-prone gem Romeo Lavia replaces Rangers’ Nicolas Raskin.
The only outfield player to survive from France’s win over Turkey is Maxence Lacroix. Nine changes!. We’re not sure whether that is because of injury or fatigue, or whether that is because Zidane had a withering asssessment of Friday’s win, but it is a much-changed XI for Les Bleus.
Esteban Lepaul will earn his first start and play as the No 9, while Andy Diouf, Jérémy Jacquet, and Lucas Da Cunha all make their France debuts. This is going to be very interesting.
Belgium v France team news: Zidane makes nine changes from Turkey win!
Belgium 4-2-3-1: Lammens; Castagne, Mechele, Ngoy, Seys; Lavia, Tielemans; Moreira, De Bruyne, Godts; De Ketelaere.
Subs: De Busser, Vandevoordt, Debast, De Cuyper, De Winter, Fernandez-Pardo, Keita, Lukaku, Lukebakio, Openda, Raskin, Vanaken.
France 4-3-3: Maignan; Kalulu, Jacquet, Lacroix, Diouf; Akliouche, Camavinga, Da Cunha; Doué, Lepaul, Barcola.
Subs: Restes, Truffert, Upamecano, Kounde, Dembele, Kone, Cherki, Olise, Rabiot, Yoro, Butez.
Full-time in the early kick-offs
The three early Nations League matches have now finished. Montenegro followed up their late win over Cyprus on Friday with an even later (89th-minute) winner this evening to beat Armenia 3-2. Aleksa Latkovic pounced after some dreadful goalkeeping from Armenia’s Ognjen Cancarevic.
Elsewhere, there were goalless draws:
Georgia 0-0 Ukraine
Latvia 0-0 Cyprus
Preamble
Whisper it, but the Nations League is … quite good? It is, at least, a serious upgrade on the international iterations of the past. Jonathan Wilson, in today’s newsletter, described the Nations League as a “palate-cleanser” and “having “a similar role to the Carabao Cup, a competition that is not nothing but is not obviously something either”, which I think is just about right. You can read more of Jonathan’s thoughts right here.
Another intriguing evening of Nations League awaits. Here are the 7.45pm BST fixtures we will be covering in this liveblog:
Belgium v France
Northern Ireland v Hungary
Turkey v Italy
Sweden v Poland
Romania v Bosnia and Herzegovina
Plenty to go on, then. Belgium v France promises to be a cracker. Belgium were excellent in victory on Friday, Mark van Bommel’s first game in charge. They swatted aside Italy 2-0 in Rome, and did it all without the sidelined Jérémy Doku (although his replacement, PSG’s Mika Godts, was a revelation). France are missing Kylian Mbappé after the Real Madrid was hurt in scoring the only goal of the game in Turkey – Mbappé has since been diagnosed with hyperextension of the posterior capsule of his left knee, and is expected to be out for the rest of the international break. Now coached by Zinedine Zidane, France flickered with quality against Turkey but also looked vulnerable. They are far from the finished article, but there is plenty of time for Zizou to work his magic.
Northern Ireland came away from Georgia on Friday with a dramatic 1-0 win, following Shea Charles’ 99th-minute toe-poke, but tonight is arguably a stiffer test as Hungary and Dominik Szoboszlai arrive in Belfast. Hungary lost at home to Ukraine on Friday and will be determined to bounce back.
Sweden v Poland looks evenly matched, but Turkey v Italy is the pick of the games otherwise. Vincenzo Montella, Turkey’s manager, faces compatriot Roberto Mancini in the battle of the dugouts. The pair briefly played together 30 years ago at Sampdoria, in Mancini’s final season at the club. Together they scored a combined 37 goals in 1996-97 to help Samp qualify for the Uefa Cup. “I believe in him; he has the experience and knowledge to bring Italy back to the top,” said Montella in the lead up to this game. “He is the right person. Our relationship? We don’t socialise, but there’s mutual respect, esteem, and affection after our year at Sampdoria.”
We’ll see if Mancini changes his XI tonight, the one that lost to Belgium looked tired and lacking in ideas.
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