2022–23 UEFA Nations League C


The 2022–23 UEFA Nations League C was the third division of the 2022–23 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the third season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA.
WWW uefa.com/uefanationsleagu...

Format

League C consisted of 16 UEFA members ranked from 33–48 in the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League access list, split into four groups of four. Each team played six matches within their group, using the home-and-away round-robin format in June and September 2022. The winners of each group were promoted to the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League B, and the two worst-ranked fourth-placed teams of each group advanced to the relegation play-outs.
As League C had four groups while League D had only two, the League C team that was to be relegated to the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League D was determined by play-outs in March 2024.
Originally, all four of the fourth-placed teams would have participated in the play-outs. Based on the [|Nations League overall ranking], the best-ranked team would have faced the fourth-ranked team, and the second-ranked team would have faced the third-ranked team. The two losing teams would have been relegated to League D, while the winners would have remained in League C.
However, due to the ongoing suspension of Russia from all UEFA competitions and to ensure that League C would still consist of 16 teams, the league allocation for the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League was changed so that only one team would be relegated to League D. Based on the Nations League overall ranking, the two lowest-ranked teams participated in the play-outs, while the other two fourth-placed teams remained in League C.
The play-out tie was played over two legs, with the higher-ranked team hosting the second leg. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs remained in League C while the loser was relegated to League D. If the aggregate score was level, extra time was played without applying the away goals rule. If still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out was used to decide the winner.

Teams

Team changes

The following were the team changes in League C from the 2020–21 season:

Seeding

In the 2022–23 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2020–21 Nations League overall ranking. The seeding pots for the league phase were confirmed on 22 September 2021, and were based on the access list ranking.

The draw for the league phase took place at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland on 16 December 2021, 18:00 CET. Each group contained one team from each pot. Due to restrictions of excessive travel, each group could contain a maximum of one of the following pairs: Northern Ireland and the winner of the Moldova v Kazakhstan play-out tie, Gibraltar and Azerbaijan.

Groups

The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 17 December 2021, the day following the draw.
Times are CEST, as listed by UEFA.

Group 1

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Group 2

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Group 3

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Group 4

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Relegation play-outs

The two worst-ranked fourth-placed teams of League C participated in the relegation play-outs to determine the team which would be relegated to League D. The relegation play-outs were scheduled on the same dates as the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs. If at least one of the teams due to participate in the relegation play-outs had also qualified for the Euro qualifying play-offs, the relegation play-outs would have been cancelled, and the worst-ranked team in League C in the Nations League overall ranking would have been automatically relegated. However, this scenario did not occur, and the relegation play-outs progressed as scheduled.
The play-out tie was as follows, with the higher-ranked team hosting the second leg:
Times are CET, as listed by UEFA.

Summary


Matches

''Lithuania won 2–0 on aggregate and remained in League C, while Gibraltar were relegated to League D.''

Overall ranking

The 16 League C teams were ranked 33rd to 48th overall in the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules:
  • The teams finishing first in the groups were ranked 33rd to 36th according to the results of the league phase.
  • The teams finishing second in the groups were ranked 37th to 40th according to the results of the league phase.
  • The teams finishing third in the groups were ranked 41st to 44th according to the results of the league phase.
  • The teams finishing fourth in the groups were ranked 45th to 48th according to the results of the league phase.

Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs

The four best teams in League C according to the overall ranking that did not qualify for UEFA Euro 2024 through the qualifying group stage competed in the play-offs, with the winners qualifying for the final tournament.
Key
  • GW Group winner from Nations League C
  • Team qualified directly to final tournament
  • Team in bold advanced to play-offs