The Greek national team is preparing for its toughest challenge yet under Ivan Jovanović. A path it paved with its impressive performances in the 2024–25 Nations League, when it secured a decisive away win at Wembley and finished its campaign in a group with England, Ireland, and Finland with 15 points. This was followed by the promotion playoffs against Scotland, where they secured promotion to League A in equally convincing fashion; after losing at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, they crushed the Scots on their home turf, winning 3-0 in March 2025.
Between those days and today, there was a painful elimination from the 2026 World Cup. The entire national team felt the sting of that defeat, knowing that, based on their abilities, things could have turned out differently and they could have secured that ticket to the stadiums in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. All that is in the past, and now the goal is different.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
League A of the Nations League, in its final appearance in this format, is not just a major challenge against teams like the Netherlands, Germany, and Serbia. It is a tremendous opportunity to shape its future and pave the way toward EURO 2028.
Aware that national teams viewed this particular competition as of minor importance, UEFA decided to give it greater prestige by linking their performance in the Nations League to the upcoming EURO in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. In other words, the FIFA rankings will not play a role. What will count is a team’s performance in the Nations League.
Specifically, the teams in the four League A groups that finish in places 1 through 3 will not merely avoid immediate relegation. It’s worth noting that the 4th-place team is relegated, while the 3rd-place team enters a playoff. If the Greek national team finishes ahead of one of its three opponents in the final group standings and does not finish last, it will ensure that on December 6, 2026, in Belfast, at the draw for the 2028 European Championship, it will be in Pot 1.
According to the latest simulations by Football Meets Data, that pot is expected to include Spain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, England, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, Italy, and Greece. In short, whether it ends up in a qualifying group with five teams or four, it will still be the strongest team in the group and will have avoided teams like the ones mentioned above. We’ll know exactly which teams they’ll face once the Nations League wraps up in mid- to late November.
What will it definitely be like in a four-team group? If Germany, the Netherlands, and Serbia finish in the top two spots, it will advance to the Nations League quarterfinals and, from there, to the tournament’s semifinals in June of the same year. In any case, a 1st- or 2nd-place finish in its Nations League group could, on its own, provide a “safety net” for qualifying for EURO 2028 via a playoff, should it fail to qualify through the regular qualifiers. But it’s too early for that discussion.
On the other hand, if they’re in a five-team group, that means they’ll have one team from Pot 5 in their group, which is expected to include teams such as Malta, Andorra, Gibraltar, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, and Liechtenstein. In other words, in a two-leg series (home and away), you can expect to earn six points.
Finally, it’s worth noting that of the 54 teams entering the qualifying process for EURO 2028, 20 will qualify directly: the winners of the 12 groups and the 8 best runners-up. The remaining four second-place finishers will play in playoffs against teams that earned a second chance through the Nations League to complete the final 24-team field for the major tournament.
*photo source: KYPE
