dThe German soccer team plays the new season League of Nations in the group stage against the Netherlands, Euro Cup rivals Hungary and Bosnia-Herzegovina. This was the result of Thursday's draw in Paris. The DFB team was classified in Group 3 of the A-League.
National coach Julian Nagelsmann and DFB sporting director Rudi Völler The draw followed on site at the Maison de la Mutualité: when the new season of the national competition begins in September, both will no longer hold their positions. Nagelsmann and Völler's contracts end this summer after the European Championship at home (June 14 to July 14).
In the 2024/25 season, a quarterfinal of the Nations League will be played for the first time, through which four of the 16 European exit places for the 2026 World Cup will be awarded. The four group winners of the A- League are no longer automatically qualified for the top four nation finals in the summer. The playoffs will be held together with the group runners-up in March 2025 and drawn in November.
Mixed balance
But even this rule would have been enough for the national team to advance for the first time in the three previous editions of the tournament: in 2020/21. Joaquín Löw The DFB team came second, but what they will remember most is the 6-0 defeat in Spain in November 2020.
In the last 2022/23 season, Germany, under Nagelsmann's predecessor Hansi Flick, only finished third in the group. In the first season 2018/19, then still in groups of three, the DFB team was the last to avoid relegation to the B league thanks to a subsequent promotion. This danger is now increasing again: in the next season, the third-placed teams in the A-League will have to play playoffs against the second-placed teams in the B-League to avoid relegation. So far only the bottom team has been relegated to the next lower league.
Of the 16 matches played so far, Germany has only won three, with four losses and nine draws. The top scorer is Timo Werner, who moved to Tottenham Hotspur in the winter, with seven goals; In total, the team lost 29 more goals than he scored (24).