# 2018–19 UEFA Nations League B

The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League B was the second division of the 2018–19 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA.

## Format

League B consisted of 12 UEFA members ranked from 13 to 24, split into four groups of three. The winners of each group were promoted to the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League A. The third-placed team of each group was initially to be relegated to the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League C, but remained in League B following UEFA's reformatting of the next edition's groups.
In addition, League B was allocated one of the four remaining UEFA Euro 2020 places. Four teams from League B which had not already qualified for the European Championship finals competed in the play-offs for each division, which were played in October and November 2020. The play-off berths were first allocated to the group winners, and if any of the group winners had already qualified for the European Championship finals, then to the next best ranked team of the division, etc. If there were fewer than four teams in League B which had not already qualified for the European Championship finals, the play-off berths would be allocated via one of two methods:
* If League B had a group winner selected for the play-offs, the next best team in the overall ranking from a lower league would be selected.
* If League B had no group winner available, the best team in the overall ranking would be selected.
The playoffs consisted of two "one-off" semi-finals (best-ranked team hosts the lowest-ranked team and second best-ranked team hosts the third best-ranked team and one "one-off" final between the two semi-final winners (venue drawn in advance between semi-final 1 and 2).

### Seeding

Teams were allocated to League B according to their UEFA national team coefficients after the conclusion of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying group stage on 11 October 2017. Teams were split into three pots of four teams, ordered based on their UEFA national team coefficient. The seeding pots for the draw were announced on 7 December 2017.
Pot 1 :
| Pot 1 Team Coeff Rank  Austria 29,418 13  Wales 29,269 14  Russia 29,258 15  Slovakia 28,555 16 | Pot 2 Team Coeff Rank  Sweden 28,487 17  Ukraine 28,286 18  Republic of Ireland 28,249 19  Bosnia and Herzegovina 28,200 20 | Pot 3 Team Coeff Rank  Northern Ireland 27,127 21  Denmark 27,052 22  Czech Republic 27,028 23  Turkey 26,538 24 |
The group draw took place at the SwissTech Convention Center in Lausanne, Switzerland on 24 January 2018, 12:00 CET. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine could not be drawn into the same group (due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine).

## Groups

The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 24 January 2018 following the draw.
Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

### Group 1

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion | | | |
| 1 | Ukraine (P) | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 9 | Promotion to League A | — | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| 2 | Czech Republic | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 | | 1–2 | — | 1–0 |
| 3 | Slovakia | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 | | 4–1 | 1–2 | — |
* ↑ Due to revamp of the format for the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League, no teams were eventually relegated.

### Group 2

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion | | | |
| 1 | Sweden (P) | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 7 | Promotion to League A | — | 2–0 | 2–3 |
| 2 | Russia | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 7 | | 0–0 | — | 2–0 |
| 3 | Turkey | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 | −3 | 3 | | 0–1 | 1–2 | — |
* ↑ Due to revamp of the format for the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League, no teams were eventually relegated.
* 1 2 Head-to-head points: Sweden 4, Russia 1.

### Group 3

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion | | | |
| 1 | Bosnia and Herzegovina (P) | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | +4 | 10 | Promotion to League A | — | 1–0 | 2–0 |
| 2 | Austria | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 7 | | 0–0 | — | 1–0 |
| 3 | Northern Ireland | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 7 | −5 | 0 | | 1–2 | 1–2 | — |
* ↑ Due to revamp of the format for the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League, no teams were eventually relegated.

### Group 4

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion | | | |
| 1 | Denmark (P) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 8 | Promotion to League A | — | 2–0 | 0–0 |
| 2 | Wales | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 6 | | 1–2 | — | 4–1 |
| 3 | Republic of Ireland | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 2 | | 0–0 | 0–1 | — |
* ↑ Due to revamp of the format for the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League, no teams were eventually relegated.

## Goalscorers

There were 48 goals scored in 24 matches, for an average of 2 goals per match.
3 goals
* Edin Džeko
* Patrik Schick
2 goals
* Christian Eriksen
* Denis Cheryshev
* Emre Akbaba
* Yevhen Konoplyanka
* Gareth Bale
1 goal
* Marko Arnautović
* Valentino Lazaro
* Xaver Schlager
* Haris Duljević
* Elvis Sarić
* Michael Krmenčík
* Martin Braithwaite
* Nicolai Jørgensen
* Corry Evans
* Will Grigg
* Shaun Williams
* Artem Dzyuba
* Roman Neustädter
* Marek Hamšík
* Juraj Kucka
* Róbert Mak
* Albert Rusnák
* Adam Zreľák
* Marcus Berg
* Viktor Claesson
* Andreas Granqvist
* Isaac Kiese Thelin
* Victor Lindelöf
* Serdar Aziz
* Hakan Çalhanoğlu
* Ruslan Malinovskyi
* Andriy Yarmolenko
* Oleksandr Zinchenko
* Tom Lawrence
* Aaron Ramsey
* Connor Roberts
* Harry Wilson

## Overall ranking

The 12 League B teams were ranked 13th to 24th overall in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules:
* The teams finishing first in the groups were ranked 13th to 16th according to the results of the league phase.
* The teams finishing second in the groups were ranked 17th to 20th according to the results of the league phase.
* The teams finishing third in the groups were ranked 21st to 24th according to the results of the league phase.
| Rnk | Grp | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 13 | B3 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | +4 | 10 |
| 14 | B1 | Ukraine | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 9 |
| 15 | B4 | Denmark | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 8 |
| 16 | B2 | Sweden | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 7 |
| 17 | B2 | Russia | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 7 |
| 18 | B3 | Austria | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 7 |
| 19 | B4 | Wales | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 6 |
| 20 | B1 | Czech Republic | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 |
| 21 | B1 | Slovakia | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 |
| 22 | B2 | Turkey | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 | −3 | 3 |
| 23 | B4 | Republic of Ireland | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 2 |
| 24 | B3 | Northern Ireland | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 7 | −5 | 0 |

## Prize money

The prize money to be distributed was announced in March 2018. Each team in League B received a solidarity fee of €1 million. In addition, the four group winners received double this amount with a €1M bonus fee. This meant that the maximum amount of solidarity and bonus fees for a team from League B was €2M.

## Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs

The four best teams in League B according to the overall ranking that did not qualify for UEFA Euro 2020 through the qualifying group stage competed in the play-offs, with the winners qualifying for the final tournament. If there had been fewer than four teams in League B that had not qualified, the remaining slots would have been allocated to teams from another league, according to the overall ranking.
Key
* $^{GW}$ Nations League group winner
* $^H$ UEFA Euro 2020 host at the time of the draw
* Team advanced to play-offs
* Team qualified directly to final tournament