uefa nations league

The 2022–23 UEFA Nations League is the third edition of the competition.

Due to the FIFA World Cup taking place in December 2022, the league phase of the competition was played between June and September 2022, with the finals tournament for the group winners from League A taking place in June 2023.

League A

The 55 UEFA members were divided into the four Leagues with 16 teams in League A, League B and League C and 7 teams in League D. Seeding was determined according to the UEFA national team coefficients after the conclusion of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Having gained promotion to League A in 2020, Wales were ranked 13th amongst UEFA members and placed in Pot 3 of seeds for League A. Wales were drawn into Group A4 alongside Belgium, Netherlands and Poland.

League A - Group 4

no.datescorescorers (wales)venue 
68801/06/2022Poland 2-1 WalesJ. WilliamsTarczyński Arena WrocławNL
 03/06/2022Belgium 1-4 Netherlands Stade Roi Baudouin, BrusselsNL
 08/06/2022Belgium 6-1 Poland Stade Roi Baudouin, BrusselsNL
69008/06/2022Wales 1-2 NetherlandsNorrington-DaviesCardiff City Stadium, CardiffNL
 11/06/2022Netherlands 2-2 Poland De Kuip, RotterdamNL
69111/06/2022Wales 1-1 BelgiumJohnsonCardiff City Stadium, CardiffNL
69214/06/2022Netherlands 3-2 WalesJohnson, Bale (pen)De Kuip, RotterdamNL
 14/06/2022Poland 0-1 Belgium Stadion Narodowy, WarsawNL
69322/09/2022Belgium 2-1 WalesMooreStade Roi Baudouin, BrusselsNL
 22/09/2022Poland 0-2 Netherlands Stadion Narodowy, WarsawNL
 25/09/2022Netherlands 1-0 Belgium Johan Cruyff Arena, AmsterdamNL
69425/09/2022Wales 0-1 Poland Cardiff City Stadium, CardiffNL


  PWDLFAPts 
1.Netherlands651014616Advance to Finals
2.Belgium631211810 
3.Poland62136127 
4.Wales60156111Relegated to League B

Wales in the 2022-23 Nations League

Having gained promotion to League A in 2020, Wales were ranked 13th amongst UEFA members and placed in Pot 3 of seeds for League A. Wales were drawn into Group A4 alongside Belgium, Netherlands and Poland.

The preparations for Wales' debut in the top echelon of the competition was disrupted due to the rearrangement of the FIFA World Cup Play-Off match against Ukraine taking place in the same week as Wales' opening matches in the competition.

With one eye on the Play Off match, Rob Page kept his strongest players on the bench as Wales started their campaign in Wrocław. Despite taking the lead through a Jonny Williams goal, two late Polish goals saw Wales slip to their first defeat since the Euro 2020 quarter final loss to Denmark.

The next match in the campaign came just three days after the Play Off victory over Ukraine with Page once again resting most senior players for the visit of the Netherlands.

Rhys Norrington-Davies' scored his first international goal to bring Wales level two minutes into injury time, but Wout Weghorst broke the home team's hearts two minutes later to safeguard Netherlands' 100% record against Wales.

With the games coming thick and fast, Page changed his starting XI once again for the visit of Belgium just three days later but Wales' excellent record against De Rode Duivels continued as Brennan Johnson scored his first international goal late on in the match to secure Wales' first point of the campaign.

The game in the Netherlands was Wales' fifth game in 14 days and had a real sense of deja vu from the home match as goals from Johnson and an injury time penalty from Gareth Bale gave Wales hopes of avoiding defeat against the Dutch for the very first time.

However with the travelling Wales fans still celebrating, Memphis Depay latched on to a long ball from the Dutch restart to slot past Hennessey and break Welsh hearts for the second time in three matches. Defeat in Belgium saw Wales needing a victory over Poland in the final match in Cardiff in order to avoid relegation back to League B.

The final two matches of the campaign saw Wales without several key players as Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen and Ben Davies pulled out of the squad through injury.

In a frustrating match notable for the amount of time the Polish players spent on the floor, it was Karol Swiderski who scored the only goal of the game, consigning Wales to relegation.

Players used during the campaign

Wales used 29 players during the 2022-23 Nations League and unsurprisingly, given the number of games in such a short space of time, only Dan James played some part in every match of the campaign.

Wes Burns made his debut in the opening match in Wrocław whilst Brennan Johnson scored his first international goal in the home draw against Belgium.


PlayerPOLNEDBELNEDBELPOL
Joe Allen  38   
Ethan Ampadu  90 90 
Gareth Bale 1388202690
Wes Burns61 1745  
Ben Cabango     90
Rubin Colwill 3117  18
Adam Davies 45    
Ben Davies 907390  
Chris Gunter90  23  
Mark Harris45     
Wayne Hennessey45 90909090
Dan James457790709090
Brennan Johnson 772909090
Dylan Levitt9059   72
Rabbi Matondo4513    
Chris Mepham90 909090 
Kieffer Moore45   6432
Joe Morrell9059  2690
Rhys Norrington-Davies909029 8458
Aaron Ramsey  5227  
Connor Roberts 9061459085
Tyler Roberts    6 
Joe Rodon 9090679090
Matt Smith9031 6364 
Sorba Thomas13  90  
Danny Ward4545   5
Jonathan Williams77     
Neco Williams29 90 9090
Harry Wilson 907390