The Nations League: Group B4 Breakdown

Photo: Croatia Women in a huddle. Credit: HNS Women 

Group 4 of League B consists of: Albania, Croatia, Czechia and Ukraine. The first of these fixtures are Albania at home to Ukraine and Croatia at home to Albania.

Albania:

Albania have three wins in their last five games, with them ending their year with a 2-1 win over Romania in a friendly in December.  

Albania hit a hard run of fixtures at the end of 2023 to the start of 2024 with them going nearly a year without a win. Despite two big defeats to Norway in Euro qualification with them conceding 14 goals collectively, they seemed to hit a good run of form in their League C qualification group.

Albania topped their group with three wins, with two of these being against Estonia and one against Luxembourg. It is likely they are hoping to replicate this run and exceed their 3 consecutive win record of last year.

However, with Albania sitting at 76th in FIFA’s world ranking, the lowest of all the group, it is not going to be easy ride for them.

Croatia:

Croatia have two draws and three losses in their last five games, while ending the year with a 1-1 draw to Slovenia in a friendly. The rest of their fixtures haven’t gone their way with noticeable losses to Wales, Norway and Northern Ireland.

In fact, Croatia have recently faced fellow Group B4 opponents Ukraine. With a 2-0 loss in July but a 1-0 win in April, it will be interesting to see who will come out on top this time.

A player to watch is Osijek’s forward Izabela Lojna. While, ŽNK Osijek did not qualify for the group stages of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, Lojna did have a good qualifying campaign with three goals in four games. Can she be the attacking threat Croatia need during the Nations League this year?

Czechia:

Czechia have one win and two draws in their last five. Despite having a poor start to the last year with five consecutive losses, they still have an impressive record very few teams in recent times have had.

They have recently beat World Champions, Spain 2-1 in July. This alongside their triumphant 8-0 win over Belarus, shows they are the team to beat in this group.

Additionally, Czechia have recently appointed new head coach Jitka Klimková who was announced on the 21st of January and has signed a 2-year deal.

Klimková previously was head coach to the New Zealand Women’s National Team and even led them to their first ever win in a tournament, with a 1-0 win against Norway in their opening match of the World Cup in 2023. She is sure to want to continue breaking records with her new team too.

Ukraine:

Ukraine have two wins and a draw in their last five games. Even though they ended the year with back-to-back losses to Belgium in Euro qualifiers, they started the year off with a consistent run of good form.

With only one loss in 10 games from February to October in 2024, Ukraine will hope to replicate this form during their campaign this year.

Throughout these 10 games they kept 6 clean sheets, clearly showing they are a team that has a strong defence and will not be easily broken down.

A player to watch is Anna Petryk who has 43 international caps. Petryk remains a consistent player within the Ukrainian back line and will be sure to put in a shift for her team.