The Nations League: this is the difficult road to the Olympic Games for the women's team

A tournament that does not come at the best time and that has much more significance than it appears. For Spain, the Nations League, a premiere UEFA competition, has gotten in the way when there are still more embers from the implosion generated by Luis Rubiales' kiss to Jenni Hermoso than from the World Championship itself. Spain will debut the star on its chest with a new coach, a change of federation president and after an exercise of vindication by the players that led to the signing of an agreement, with the CSD medication, which guarantees changes. Rubiales, Jorge Vilda and even Andreu Camps have fallen, but now it's time to get the ball rolling.

Spain needs to put aside everything that is not football to offer a version similar to the one that led it to become world champion. It is the only way to be in the Paris Olympic Games and pave the way for qualification to the Euro 2025 to be held in Switzerland.

UEFA decided a year ago that the three European places for the Olympic competition would not be obtained via the World Cup, but would be linked to this new tournament, a replica of the men's tournament but more transcendent.. With France as the host, only the two finalist teams will be able to play the games.

The competition is divided into three leagues according to the coefficient obtained during the World Cup qualification, in which Spain finished fifth in the ranking.. The 16 best teams on the continent are included in League A, which will give access to the final phase of the competition and fight for the Olympic place.. As in the case of the men's tournament, there are four groups in which they are distributed. Spain is in A4 along with Sweden, Italy and Switzerland. In A1 England, Netherlands, Belgium and Scotland will compete; in A2 France, Norway, Austria and Portugal; and in A3 Germany, Denmark, Iceland and Wales.

These leagues will be played in four windows that started yesterday and will end in a final unified day on December 5. Only the first classified in each group will be able to compete in the playoff for the title and the ticket to Paris, which will be decided between February 21 and 28 at a single venue that has not yet been defined.

The difficulty for Spain is important. The change in UEFA criteria, which previously rewarded the World champions, has harmed Montse Tomé's team. He needs to get rid of Sweden, with whom he already crossed paths in the World Cup, and he must begin to do so this Friday at the Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg without having had almost time to think about football. Then the duel against Switzerland in Córdoba will arrive on Tuesday. Two trips await them next month: to Salerno to face Italy on October 27 and to Zurich to face the Swiss four days later.

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The team needs to be first in its group and get into the final of the tournament to be Olympic, something that the boys achieved by being runners-up in the European Under 20 Championship last June.. Third place would also be worth it if France, which has a direct place as host country, were a finalist. Waiting for any carom is playing with fire and Spain cannot allow it.

In addition to the possibility of being Olympic, the eight best teams, that is, the first two in each group of League A, will have a direct place for the Euro Cup and would avoid having to play a previous qualification that would start in the spring of 2024 and conclude in autumn.

Spain was going to live this tournament with the blessed pressure of showing off as champion, but at this moment it represents an extra pressure that the internationals, still in the middle of a storm, will have to manage. In fact, it seems that may be your biggest challenge.