The Nations League: Group B3 Breakdown

Finland Women celebrating after a goal – credit Helmaritifi on Instagram.

Group 3 of League B consists of: Belarus, Finland, Hungary and Serbia. The first of these fixtures are Serbia at home to Finland and Belarus at home to Hungary.

Belarus:

Belarus have three wins in their last five games ,with last international break gaining two wins against Uzbekistan and collectively scoring four goals across both games.

With only one loss the entirety of 2024; an unfortunate 8-1 loss to Czechia during Euro qualification last October, can Belarus continue their winning ways?

Especially given they went unbeaten in their Euro qualification, gaining all 18 points out of a possible 18 and scoring 19 goals without conceding any.

This clearly shows they are a threat on the attack as well as in defence and it will be interesting to see if they can maintain this record within their Nations League campaign.

Finland:

Unlike their Group 3 counterparts, Finland is the only team out of the four that have qualified for the Euros in Switzerland this year.

They are sure to want to use this Nations League to prepare and prove they are ready for the tough summer ahead, especially their group stage games against Iceland, Norway and hosts Switzerland.

Finland also have found good form recently with three wins and a draw in their last four games, within these games they scored a collective of eight goals and consistently kept a clean sheet. Like Belarus, Finland shows that they are both an attacking and defensive threat, which suggests an interesting match-up between the two.

A player to keep an eye on is Linda Sällström who had a very successful Nations League last year, with a total of four goals and two assists.

Another player who had a successful campaign last year was Tottenham’s Eveliina Summanen, who totalled three goals and has had a relatively good start to the WSL this season with two goals and two assists already. She is sure to be one to watch.

Hungary:

Hungary have a less impressive recent form with only one win and one draw in their last five. One of those wins is only one of the three throughout the entirety of last year with these being a 1-0 win over Switzerland, a 3-1 win over Malta and a 5-0 win over Azerbaijan.

With this recent record, they will be keen to get some essential points throughout the three international breaks the league takes place across.

Hopefully, fairly new head coach Alexandra Szarvas can work some magic with her team. Szarvas took over the national team in April of 2024 after previously coaching the under 19s.

She didn’t have the easiest start to her managerial role with a few tough fixtures but last international break she has made a bit more of a breakthrough after playing Malta twice in friendlies and coming away with a win and a 1-1 draw.

This turn around will hopefully work in Hungary’s favour and they can be in the fight for promotion too.

Serbia:

The final team in group three is Serbia who, like Hungary, have had a recent difficult run of fixtures with the last break seeing back-to-back losses to Sweden with a 2-0 loss at home and a 6-0 loss away.

However, before this they hit a good run during their Euro qualification campaign, sitting second after Scotland, gaining 13 points and scoring a total of 11 goals.

It is likely that head coach, Zečević is hoping to replicate that form found in qualification. TWo of his players to keep an eye on are Jelena Čanković and Jovan Damnjanović.

Brighton and Hove’s summer signing from Chelsea, Čanković has 69 appearances and 6 goals for Serbia and after having an impressive performance against her ex-club in the WSL, she is sure to be one to watch.

Similarly, Bayern Munich forward Damnjanović who has 59 appearances and 21 goals for her country, is also a threat to watch especially when it comes to goals.

The UEFA Nations League kicks off on the 21st of February, who will you be backing?