Southgate relishing the prospect of England playing the Netherlands in the semi-finals
England have been drawn against the Netherlands in the semi-finals of the inaugural UEFA Nations League and Gareth Southgate is relishing the prospect of the Three Lions competing at the highest level against some of the top nations in Europe.
Portugal are set to fight it out with Switzerland in the other semi-final and Southgate just can’t wait for the drama to unfold, claiming that the Nations League has done a world of good for international football.
“I think it’s a bit early to judge on a broader scale but it’s been a huge success in terms of the quality of the matches, the excitement of the matches,” Southgate told UEFA.
“[Without the Nations League] we would have been into a period of early qualification for the European Championship and probably more friendlies within that spell. And I think, on the back of a World Cup, that would have been very difficult for a lot of teams in terms of the motivation and the desire.
“So I can only speak from experiences, but the players were excited by the games, the supporters were excited by the games, the level of the opposition meant there was high motivation and then [came] the drama of the group. There was so much jeopardy within the group that we were anywhere from place three, two, one throughout the game with Croatia. And that again added to the excitement of the occasion.”
“I watched a lot of Portugal at the last European Championship. I was a technical analyst for UEFA during that, so I was really impressed by their adaptability,” he said.
“A very smart coach [Fernando Santos] who had good players to work with, but tactically was excellent throughout the tournament. They’re now hosting, and they’ll be very, very strong on the back of winning the European Championship.
“Holland, I’ve got to know Ronald [Koeman] a little bit from his time at Everton and again I really like what he’s done with the team – some very exciting young players coming through.
Southgate added: “And Switzerland, we played in September in a friendly and they played us off the park for 45 minutes. I thought they were very good in the World Cup, they had one bad day against Sweden. So, I think it’s a very open draw, an exciting draw because it’s four teams who haven’t had huge success over the years.
“Portugal have had more recent success than any of us [winning Euro 2016], Holland have been a while [without success], we’ve been ages! So, I think all of the supporters will be excited by it, and I think it’s going to be a really enjoyable summer.”
