Portugal and Switzerland Play For Berth In First Ever UEFA Nations League Finals

As if we needed another international soccer competition, the first ever UEFA Nations League Finals will take place in Portugal this week. So what is the UEFA Nations League? Basically, it’s UEFA’s plan to reduce the number of international friendlies by implementing yet another tournament. Here’s the basic concept–the 55 national teams under the UEFA banner were divided into groups following the World Cup in 2018. The plan was to hold them on dates currently allocated for international friendlies which means that it wouldn’t mess up the schedule for the World Cup or the European Championships. One of the benefits according to UEFA president Gianni Infantino would be to help ‘less glamorous’ national teams set up games. Ooof! Way to be blunt about it. That’s easy for someone from Italy to say….

The reaction to the Nations League has generally been positive and as a result the event will be expanded and serve as an additional method of qualification for the European Championships. There have been some critics that have griped that it would allow less glamorous countries to qualify for the Euro tournament. Just kidding. The gripe is that it would allow weaker entrants to find a back door into the European Championships and thus diluting the level of competition. That might not be a concern after all since based on the current competition everyone involved appears to be taking it very seriously.

This game is a fine example. Host country Portugal has been a major player on the international scene for over a decade and while Switzerland might not be quite as high profile they are extremely competitive in international competition more often than not. Switzerland reached the knockout stage in the last three World Cup competitions and are on the verge of joining the sport’s high level elite. They catch Portugal at a time when there is much concern about the team’s defenders who are getting a bit ‘long in the tooth’ for high level international play. Portugal’s standards are pretty high–the team is the defending UEFA European Champions having won Euro 2016 in France.

Portugal is unbeaten in their last 8 games in international play dating back to their second round World Cup 2018 elimination at the hands of Uruguay. That’s the good news–the bad news is that after winning three straight they’ve played to a draw in four straight. Despite much concern that they’re ‘playing down to the level of opposition’ there’s every reason to think they’ll have a good shot at defending their crown at Euro 2020. Worth noting that Cristiano Ronaldo will play for Portugal after sitting out the previous four Nations League games.

Switzerland has been a bit inconsistent since they were dismissed from the 2018 World Cup by Sweden. In 8 international games they are 4-1-3 though they have won their last two away games. Granit Xhaka will join the team for this contest after finishing up business with Arsenal along with forward Xherdan Shaqiri who was part of Liverpool’s Champions League winning side. These teams played each other twice in World Cup Qualifying in 2018 with each winning at home. Portugal has now won 3 straight at home against Switzerland. The Swiss are a tactically sound team but Portugal looks to have more of an offensive punch that should be sufficient to see them through to the finals.

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