Four national teams go head to head in Portugal this summer competing to be crowned UEFA Nations League champions. Read on to find out which Manchester United stars are involved.
Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands and England are the teams who have qualified and they will go up against each other hoping to be crowned the inaugural winners of the UEFA Nations League.
The tournament started in September of last year with 55 national teams taking part. There were four leagues lettered A to B, each with four divisions in, numbered one to four. The placing of each team was decided on their UEFA coefficients after the 2018 World Cup qualifying, with the top-ranked sides placed from League A downwards.
Winners of each of the four divisions won promotion to the league above and the bottom club faced relegation to the league below. The four division winners in League A, playoff against each other in the Nations League finals, which take place next week.
On the 5th of June, Portugal takes on Switzerland and a day later on the 6th, England plays the Netherlands, with the winners meeting each other in the final next Sunday.
Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford have been called up to Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the tournament. Both players have also been handed the same shirt numbers as they wore for the World Cup last summer.
Southgate has created an atmosphere and an environment in the England camp which has made the team very successful on the pitch. That same group of players, bar a few additions, has known each other for a couple of years now and therefore understand each other’s game inside out. Why meddle with it?
Former-Red Devil Memphis Depay will be coming up against his former teammates in the semi-final between England and the Netherlands after the Lyon winger was called up for his national team.
Diogo Dalot was picked for Portugal’s under-20 World Cup squad rather than for the senior side playing in the Nations League. Dalot has played two games so far in the group stages of the World Cup, beating South Korea 1-0 but losing to Argentina 2-0.
United legend Cristiano Ronaldo will be hoping to win back to back UEFA competitions for his national side. His side are the current holders of the Euros, beating France in the final in 2016.