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In common with the fiendishly complicated lunchtime TV quiz show Turnabout that was broadcast on the BBC during the 1990s, it is possible to watch and thoroughly enjoy the Nations League without having the foggiest idea what on earth is going on. Dreamed up by Uefa several years ago to eliminate the need for the kind of pointless international friendlies that – [Football Daily checks fixture list] – are taking place across Europe this weekend, the Nations League has managed to inveigle its way into the subconscious of most football fans to the extent that they know it is A Thing, even if the vast majority of them remain completely baffled by its format and are at a loss to explain why it exists.
Of course, like an entertaining Adrian Chiles Big Website column about the wisdom of purchasing mustard shorts when you know everyone will hate them or doing a naked forward roll, not everything has to be of the weightiest significance for us purists to consider it worthwhile. And in Thursday night’s Nations League semi-final between Spain and France, we were served up a bona fide treat. Described in many quarters as a nine-goal “thriller” despite Spain having enjoyed a 4-0 and 5-1 lead, it was still a close and important enough game to prompt complaints from Kylian Mbappé about the referee’s timekeeping when the official blew his final whistle seconds after France had pulled the score back to 5-4, three minutes into added time.
