In contrast to the women’s nations league promotion/relegation play-offs where the Republic of Ireland was drawn against Belgium, Iceland will face Northern Ireland.
After being beaten out of the top spot in Group B2, the Republic of Ireland is currently in play-offs, and Northern Ireland are hoping to reclaim their position after finishing second to Poland in Group B1.
Iceland, who finished third in Group A2, will take on the Republic of Ireland in their opening match against Belgium in Northern Ireland.
This will be a challenging task for us, but one that we are eager to take on, according to Republic of Ireland head coach Carla Ward, who knows Belgium are a very good team with a strong history in women’s football.
We are “building day by day, game by game,” according to the statement from our five of our six Nations League group victories, which came to an end with a strong performance against Slovenia.
In the other two games, Austria will face Finland, while the Czech Republic will face Denmark.
Further details are yet to be confirmed regarding the fixtures’ availability for October.
The two-legged play-off winners will compete in League A of the 2027 Women’s World Cup qualifiers, while League B will host the losers.
Germany faced off against France in the finals, which will feature this year’s four League A group winners, while world champions Spain will face Sweden in the two-legged semi-final on October 24 and 28.
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Women’s Football Team from the Republic of Ireland
Venue: Hampden Park, Glasgow Date: Friday, 6 June Kick-off: 19: 45 BST
It has been a year since a striker scored for Scotland.
Lawrence Shankland’s goal in a 2-2 draw with Finland before the European Championships was the last time a front man rippled the net for the national side.
In a competitive match, you have to go back to Shankland’s stoppage-time equaliser against Georgia in qualifying for the Euros in November 2023.
For the most part, it has not mattered.
Head coach Steve Clarke has managed to craft a way of playing throughout his tenure which has led to qualification for two major tournaments and, until their recent relegation, a rise to Nations League A.
That formula has allowed midfield duo Scott McTominay and John McGinn to thrive and grab the majority of the goals, with others chipping in at key times.
Adams ‘ desperate to score ‘
Of the current group, Che Adams is the player with the most experience. He has played 37 times for Scotland since Clarke gave him his debut in 2021.
Having had a profitable first season in Serie A with Torino, scoring 10 goals, and the fact he can use his physical attributes to hold play up and allow the likes of McTominay and McGinn to get up the pitch, mean he is trusted with the jersey.
However, the former Southampton man has managed just six Scotland goals.
Five of them have come against the Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Moldova and Gibraltar, two of them winning goals. The last of them was against the Gibraltarians last June in a friendly.
Nonetheless, Adams has been a key player for Clarke – and that looks set to continue.
“To go out there and score 10 goals as a striker in Serie A is not easy – certainly at that level of club”, Clarke said.
“He’s come in, he’s finished, he’s been absolutely outstanding in training. Hopefully he can do that over the next two games as well and get a few goals for his country.
Could Conway or Hirst stake claim?
Middlesbrough’s Tommy Conway and Ipswich Town’s George Hirst are two of the other strikers in the squad who will be desperate for an opportunity.
Hirst scored five goals in an injury-hit spell in the Premier League and was often an impact player behind new Chelsea signing Liam Delap in the pecking order at relegated Ipswich.
Tall and another powerful runner, he is the type of profile Clarke likes.
He ranks favourably across the top five leagues in Europe this season for aerial duels won per 90 minutes, according to website Fbref.
His manager at Ipswich, Kieran McKenna, also believes the best is yet to come from the 26-year-old, who he said was a big miss for his side when out this season.
” That profile of striker – tall, gangly, in their mid-20s – those strikers, they tend to develop a little bit later at times, “McKenna said.
” Often you look at some of the ones who’ve gone on to do really well – at 24, 25, they’re certainly not where they are at 28, 29, 30.
“I think he’s got a good chance to keep developing, he’s maturing well and it was a really good moment for him”.
Conway, at 22, also has the potential to grow. Yet he has already played more than 100 games in the Championship, arguably the most gruelling league in Europe.
At the beginning of the season, he was second choice at Boro after his switch from Bristol City.
However, following Emmanuel Latte Lath’s sale in January, he stepped in and ended the campaign with 13 goals.
Only four players scored more in the division. Of the players to score 13 or more, Conway had the best shot accuracy and was third for shot conversion rate.
Might Wilson &, Bowie be the future?
Clarke has called up 18-year-old James Wilson and 22-year-old Keiron Bowie for the friendlies against Iceland and Liechtenstein as well.
Both have had good seasons with Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian, respectively, albeit Bowie’s campaign was disrupted by a hamstring injury.
At around 6ft 3ins tall and four years older than Wilson, Bowie has the stature and strong running that makes him a fit for international football – and this Scotland side.
He also boasts the best shot conversion rate of the two in the Premiership and took all five of what data company Opta calls ‘ Big Chances ‘ on offer to him.
It hints that Bowie could be a player with the clinical edge Scotland need.
The big caveat is he only started five of his 18 league matches for Hibs, and saved his best performances as a substitute, scoring five of his six goals from the bench.
Meanwhile, Wilson started 18 of his 24 Premiership games and scored five goals.
He played alongside Shankland and – in the second half of the campaign – Elton Kabangu as well.
Used a lot to try to stretch the play for a Hearts team that lacked pace and width, the teenager is still at a very early stage in his career, but he has still earned praise for his maturity.
“His movement is really top class in and around the box”, Wilson’s new head coach, Derek McInnes, said.
SNS
Having become the youngest Scotland international when he came on against Greece in March, Wilson played for the under-21s against Slovakia last month and is likely viewed as one for the future.
Bobby Wales, who earned a move to Swansea City after a breakthrough year at Kilmarnock, is in the same category.
Fellow Scottish Premiership forwards Shankland and Kevin Nisbet are at the other end of the scale, having been left out of the squad for these friendlies.
Clarke already knows what they can bring.
Nisbet was the most prolific this season, scoring 11 times for Aberdeen in the league as he regained form and fitness on loan from Millwall, while Shankland grabbed eight.
However, even when Shankland was in red-hot form last season and hitting 30 goals, he was not Clarke’s first-choice striker, having made just one competitive start for his country.
Do the strikers need to score?
Of all the striking options Clarke has, there is no standout player above the rest.
But does it really matter if the strikers are not scoring? Clarke himself is not too fussed, given what he says the central forward is in his team to do.
“I’m a little bit selfish when it comes to my strikers because I make them play a certain way that they link the team and bring the midfield players into the final third of the pitch”, he said.
“In terms of scoring goals, you can say they don’t always get enough goals, but for me, they make a major contribution in other areas that allow people like John McGinn, Scott McTominay to join in from the midfield and get the goals that way.
” Hopefully somebody like Lewis Ferguson, if he gets the chance to play, can also add goals because Lewis is another player that can arrive in the box and score goals. I wouldn’t be too harsh on my strikers. “
Others might disagree, but it is hard to argue that Clarke’s approach has not worked.
McTominay has scored 11 goals since the beginning of 2023 and is in the form of his life. McGinn is closing in on the all-time Scotland record of 30 goals with 20 in 75 caps.
As long as that continues, Clarke will be content.
Portugal vs. Spain: Who is it? What: UEFA Nations League final Where: Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany When: Sunday, June 8, 2025 – 3pm kickoff (13:00 GMT)
How to follow our coverage on Al Jazeera Sport starting at 12 p.m. (10:00 GMT).
As Portugal and Spain prepare to face off for the UEFA Nations League trophy, the pair have one of the most highly anticipated international finals in a long time.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lamine Yamal, two of football’s greatest talents, are also pitted against each other in the final.
Both had a significant role in helping their teams survive Sunday’s showdown in Munich despite their careers being at different ends.
Ronaldo vs. Yamal is a mouth-watering prospect, and Al Jazeera Sport takes a closer look at the game.
Portugal’s route to the Nations League final: how did it do it?
Ronaldo scored the winning goal in Portugal’s first semifinal victory on Wednesday, beating the host nation Germany 2-1.
Before Francisco Conceicao equalized just past the hour mark, the Germans took the lead early in the second half thanks to Florian Wirtz, who had already given the Germans the lead. Five minutes later, the winner was scored.
How did Spain fare against France in the semifinal?
After going 4-0 and 5-0 down, Spain and France unleashed one of the greatest scorers in a 5-4 thriller.
Yamal outscored Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, and Desire Doue, who both came off the heels of Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League triumph, scoring twice and acting the star.
Lamine Yamal of Spain and Kylian Mbappe of France made headlines in the Nations League semifinal on Thursday [Annegret Hilse/Reuters]
The UEFA Nations League final’s significance is how?
These final three games of the competition’s final three games, which are scheduled for 2024-2025, will be crucial game time before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, without a doubt, as well as the semifinalists who were defeated.
The tournament itself, which offers competitive games to keep club-focused players interested during the world’s international breaks, has replaced the much-maligned and ever-more meaningless list of friendlies between continents with qualification over a two-year period.
The outcome of the two semifinals has heightened anticipation for the already notable final, and given the Nations League’s reputation as a warm-up competition between the more prestigious World Cups and UEFA European Champions, both of which occur every four years, a new level.
After winning against France in the final, Yamal made the comment that he was playing against Ronaldo. He is a legend in football. I’ll do what I’m supposed to do, win the game, and that’s it.
Is this Lamine Yamal’s shining moment?
The showdown between former Real Madrid and Manchester United legend Ronaldo will receive a lot of attention from the outside world in the course of the game.
Yamal will turn 18 next month, and the Catalan club’s star players have already sparked conjectures with their recent successes, helping them to a domestic treble this year, with their latest addition. The Barca-born forward also excelled for Spain in the semifinal match against France from last summer’s Euro 2024 success, just days shy of his 17th birthday.
Ronaldo, who is regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, gives Yamal a unique and potentially final chance to show himself against a player who is closing down his career at 40 years old.
Is Yamal up for Ballon d’Or?
With Ronaldo and Argentinian legend Lionel Messi emerging as the game’s top current stars and Yamal’s stock steadily rising this year, it has been questioned whether there is a change of guard.
Both are strong contenders to win the Ballon d’Or trophy, which honors the best player in the world each year. After guiding Manchester City to their unique five-trophy winning year in 2023, Spanish international Rodri is the current holder.
Dembele, Mbappe, and Vinicius Junior, a member of Real, will also be competing for the 2025 award, but the final on Sunday could favor Yamal ahead of the ceremony’s oct in September.
Despite uncertainty surrounding his future at Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo, center [Angelika Warmuth/Reuters]
What is the most recent development for Ronaldo’s team?
Ronaldo’s future as a player and whether he would compete in the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup in the United States have been the focus of much discussion heading into the UEFA Nations League’s final three games.
Lionel Messi will lead the host nation’s Inter Miami, who will face Egyptian side Al Ahly on June 14, in a new name and 32 teams for the annual international club competition.
Following a social media post from the front after the final day of the Saudi Pro League, Ronaldo’s time at Al Nasr in the tournament appears to be over.
Where will Ronaldo go from here next? A number of participants in the Club World Cup are being linked to a move for a player who continues to make headlines internationally. This would give FIFA’s desperate attempt to boost the competition.
What transpired between Portugal and Spain last time?
In their final encounter of the Nations League group stage, Spain defeated Portugal 1-0 in a match in 2022 to claim a victory.
In the 88th minute of the match, Alvaro Morata scored the only goal of the game at the Estadio Municipal de Braga.
Alvaro Morata, right, and Nico Williams celebrate after scoring in a 2022 Nations League game against Portugal [Pedro Nunes/Reuters]
Portugal and Spain square off in a head-to-head match
Although this will be Yamal and Ronaldo’s first game together, the on-field conflict between Spain and Portugal dates back to a friendly in 1921.
In the overall series of 17 of the 34 matches, Spain won with a score of 2-1 in December of that year.
Portugal have only won six games against their neighbors, the last of which was a friendly in 2010.
Six of the seven subsequent games ended in draws.
In the 2023 Nations final, who did Spain defeat?
After drawing one goalless in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in June 2023, Spain defeated Croatia 5-4 on penalties in the 2021 edition of the tournament.
France, who they face in Thursday’s second semifinal, defeated the Spaniards 2-1 in the 2021 final. Their victory in 2023 put an 11-year search for silverware to an end.
In the inaugural final, Portugal defeated who?
In the 2019 final, Portugal defeated the Netherlands 1-0.
The Portuguese won the game on their own soil at Porto’s Estadio do Dragao, and Goncalo Guedes scored the only goal of the match in the 60th minute.
Possible lineups for Portugal and Spain:
Potential Portugal XI: Diogo Costa, Joao Neves, Ronaldo, Inacio, Mendes, Ruben Neves, Bernardo Silva, Trincao, Fernandes, Neto, Ronaldo
I believe that Trump is more aware of how to manipulate the squirrel-like attention spans of the new and “legacy” media to his advantage than any US president since Ronald Reagan.
Reagan and his skilled advisers almost exclusively relied on television to choreograph flattering set pieces to guide his retrograde plans and maneuver around a few prickly scandals.
Trump is well aware of the methods and methods to infuse himself into the American consciousness thanks to the “boob tube,” having established his ubiquitous star via “reality TV” and countless appearances on ephemeral “chat” shows.
Trump has still honed his signature trick, misdirection, using social media, which is now primarily Truth Social. He understands how to divert the public’s attention from what is important, just like any experienced illusionist.
His goals are twofold: to advance his revolutionary agenda and to conceal the harm it causes.
Trump dismissed the COVID-19 threat, pounded unproven treatments like hydroxychloroquine, and even suggested using disinfectant as a potential remedy when a new, lethal virus emerged and spread quickly as the death toll grew.
Trump’s bizarre provocations were well intentioned and intended to halt and deflect a thorough examination of his administration’s slow, chaotic response.
Trump is aware that anger is the lifeblood of the digital era. He controls the tone and pace of public discourse by provoking conflict and controversy at a relentless rate.
Trump can change the conventional “news” narrative and use it with the aid of a cellphone, likely bearing the presidential seal, and a glint of inspiration.
He accomplishes this by flashing opulent, fleeting baubles to further his exclusive interests, while more pressing issues pass by unnoticed, like a passing cloud, causing the hard, complex stuff to fade into disrepair.
Trump is the equivalent of a 24/7 cable news outlet that, admitted or not, happily consumes content that the real cable news channels are addicted to.
So Trump pulled out of his top hat and created a fantastical “channel-changer” in the disconcerting face of Elon Musk’s untimely, abrupt split and a ferocious uproar in the Senate over his signature “big, beautiful” budget.
The president of the United States “reposted a baseless claim on Truth Social that former president Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced with clones or robots,” according to NBC News.
An NBC correspondent was required to contact the White House to find out the following given that the president of the United States shared the “conspiracy theory” with his 10 million followers and, consequently, the rest of us:
First, was it “believed” that Biden had been put to death in 2020 by the US president.
Second, why did the head of state of the United States refute a claim that a Biden had been executed and had been a clone?
Let me assist NBC News and the dozens of reporters who felt compelled to pose the same absurd questions in search of “clarity” on the White House.
I can confidently say that Trump does not “believe” that Biden was executed in 2020 despite his, ah, bluster and eccentricities.
Trump trumpeted this absurdity to sway NBC News and other scribes who are focused on the most recent shiny object rather than to examine how his “big, beautiful” bill will dilute the US deficit and reduce the number of Americans who have health insurance.
I believe it is too easy and simplistic to dismiss Trump’s ability to “train” the world’s gaze as a “distraction” because we should have already figured out how to use it.
Trump’s weapons are much more common and pernicious. He doesn’t just distract; he rewrites the story in real time, making the serious seem trivial and the trivial seem epochal. Oh, and he already realized that the majority of political observers are much more enamored by personality than by policy.
Trump also acknowledges that power is not the only factor in the presidency. It involves stagecraft. He doesn’t care about accountability or nuance. He enjoys the spectacle. And it always triumphs over the spectacle.
Trump continues to beguile and enthral with his meticulous performances, grounded in the gravitational pull and opulent prestige of occupying the Oval Office.
The president’s point is repeated in the Beltway press.
By presidential decree, Trump made it known that the White House attorney and attorney general would look into allegations that Biden’s advisers “covered up” his “cognitive decline” and authorized him to approve important decisions without his knowledge or consent.
Biden, who expressed his anger on his part, claimed that he made the “decisions during my presidency” and that his calculated gambit was a “distraction” on Thursday.
The “investigation” follows a book that CNN host Jake Tapper co-authored that details Biden’s alleged waning mental capacity while in office.
Since, according to their claims, he and CNN previously poo-pooed reports of Biden’s faltering mind and body, Tapper has been accused of revising the record as a sop-wing personality.
The manufactured rant and the deepening, vitriolic rupture of Trump-Musk sex have, in contrast, made the reinstatement of Trump’s racist travel ban a secondary consideration.
It was once the subject of ferocious legal and moral opposition, and now there isn’t even a hint of resistance. This is yet another illustration of how Trump’s theatrics smother the dangerous intent hidden beneath the alluring noise.
How should I proceed?
A trustworthy newsroom must steer clear of Trump’s cynical schemes by doing everything in its power to avoid serving as marionettes.
That means abiding by the need to treat every insult, incendiary outburst as urgent or newsworthy. Whose interests are being served by this coverage, according to editors and producers?
Pause or make a refreshing pass if the response is Trump’s.
Journalists should focus on the truth rather than stunts. What is hidden behind the vibrant camouflage, in addition to patience and the discipline to pose another crucial question?
Detachment is not the antidote to manipulation; it is sharp, vigilant reporting of the president’s profound, human effects, not his antics.
The fourth estate can and must stop mistakenly interpreting the fireworks for the fire in its exhausting dance with Donald Trump.
