Uefa Nations League 2018: Ranking England, Portugal, Netherlands and Switzerland ahead of the semi-finals

Who is in pole position heading into the inaugural Nations League semi-finals?

The Uefa Nations League semi-finals have been drawn and after some initial confusion we now know that Portugal, the hosts, will play Switzerland in Porto on 5 June, while England will meet Netherlands on the following evening in Guimaraes for a place in the final on 9 June back in Porto.

It is a time of transition for several of European football’s giants, with Italy far from their best, Spain still trying to reinvent themselves, France dropping off the pace since their World Cup triumph and Germany suffering relegation and something of an existential crisis.

But it is a landscape which has presented opportunity for others, and the all-or-nothing format of the competition has thrown up some interesting results. Here we take a look at those teams who made it through to the final four:

1. Portugal

Portugal under Fernando Santos remain a team with the twin attributes of being defensively well-organised and having Cristiano Ronaldo, although perhaps that assessment is a little harsh when it comes to this Nations League campaign: they topped Group A3 without Ronaldo playing even a minute of football, earning one win and one draw against both Italy and Poland.

Andre Silva scored three goals in the group stage (Getty)

Santos's 4-3-3 formation suits a well-balanced midfield of Bernardo Silva, William Carvalho and Ruben Neves, and in the absence of Ronaldo Sevilla’s Andre Silva has scored three times over the four games including the winning strike in the crucial group opener against Italy.

Portugal have done well with the semi-final draw, partly because they are the hosts and will be playing at home, and partly because they have drawn Switzerland, arguably a slightly easier tie than England or Netherlands would have been. Assuming Ronaldo returns to the side – and you suspect the whiff of a trophy will lure him out from his ‘boycott’ – they might just be the team to beat.

2. England

Gareth Southgate’s team went from imminent relegation to the semi-finals of the Nations League in the space of an enthralling 20-minute spell at Wembley against Croatia, who suffered the reverse turn in fortunes.

They are the favourites to win the tournament in some quarters, a product not only of their impressive World Cup run but perhaps more of the way they tore through Spain in Seville, with a front trio of Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford seemingly undefendable for 45 minutes.

Raheem Sterling was instrumental in England's win over Spain (Getty)

A shift from wing-backs to a back four has proved successful, while Southgate’s policy of blooding young players like Jadon Sancho has given the team fresh impetus when such an emotionally draining summer might have understandably let to a flat autumn, like the one Croatia have endured. Beating a resurgent Netherlands will be no easy task but overcoming such a tricky group will give England confidence in Portugal of claiming a first competitive trophy since 1966.

3. Netherlands

The Dutch look a different side to the one which feebly missed out on the World Cup. Ronald Koeman has built around a young talented spine of Ajax’s centre-back Matthijs de Ligt, who now wears the captain’s armband, and midfielder Frenkie de Jong.

The lack of natural goalscorer could hold them back in the final four, but arguably it is what makes them such a difficult side to pin down – the goal threat comes from all corners of the team: Memphis Depay, Georginio Wijnaldum and Memphis Depay all have two goals each in the competition.

Memphis Depay has proved important to the Dutch campaign (Getty)

Beating Germany 3-0 was historic, while overcoming France 2-0 with a genuine control of both the game and threats like Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe was an impressive, landmark performance. But perhaps even better still was the way they fought back in the final minutes against Germany in the final game in Gelsenkirchen, from 2-0 down, to earn a 2-2 draw and knock France off top spot.

Netherlands have not just rediscovered some of the technical slickness of old but also have a resilience which will make them a difficult opponent for England to overcome, in what will be a much-anticipated semi-final in Porto.

4. Switzerland

The Swiss might be the surprise package in this Nations League semi-final line-up, but they should not be underestimated after bulldozing their way through Group A2 with a 6-0 win over Iceland and a 5-2 win over the World Cup semi-finalists Belgium.

Haris Seferovic scored a hat-trick against Belgium (Getty)

Benfica forward Haris Seferovic has been integral to that success, as League A’s top scorer with five, including a hat-trick in that impressive rout of Belgium, which Lizerner Zeitung labelled ‘the miracle of Lucerne’. The final goal was symptomatic of how Vladimir Petkovic’s side have released the shackles, started by Xherdan Shaqiri’s invention and finished by a perfectly placed Seferovic header.

They will enter the semi-finals as the outsiders to win the inaugural Nations League, playing Portugal away from home, but as another Swiss newspaper reported on that memorable night in Lucerne: “It was as if Switzerland wanted to prove that they’re capable of achieving anything.”