Switzerland will face England in the UEFA Nations League third place play-off on Sunday. Both sides lost 3-1 in their respective semi-final matches and will now sign off the season by battling it out for third place in Guimaraes, Portugal.
Switzerland lost to the host nation Portugal in the first semi-final. The game was level at 1-1 up until the 88th minute, before Cristiano Ronaldo secured his hat-trick with two late goals.
In the other semi-final, England were beaten in extra-time by the Netherlands. Two defensive errors from England gifted the Netherlands the victory and cost them their place in the final.
England come into this match as favorites and are expected to beat Switzerland. Since their semi-final appearance at last year’s World Cup, they have beaten European heavyweights such as Spain and Croatia and have been progressing well under head coach Gareth Southgate.
Switzerland will be encouraged by the fact that England’s match against the Netherlands went to extra-time and will be hoping that they can take advantage of a fatigued England team.
England will be devastated by the manner in which they lost their semi-final. They looked to have won the match late on when Jesse Lingard capped off a brilliant team move with a goal but after a VAR review the goal was disallowed for offside.
Switzerland’s semi-final was also heavily influenced by VAR. They had a decision turned in their favor but it wasn’t enough to stop the brilliance of Ronaldo.
England and Switzerland have played against each other 26 times over the years with England generally dominating. They have won 17 of the meetings between the two sides and lost just 3, with the other 6 games resulting in a draw.
In more recent times, England beat Switzerland 2-0 home and away in the qualification for the 2016 UEFA European Championship and also beat them 1-0 last year in an international friendly match.
England undoubtedly have the better players in their ranks. Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho both had standout domestic seasons with their clubs, claiming a staggering amount of goals and assists between them. They are likely to cause Switzerland a lot of problems going forward.
Switzerland’s danger men include Liverpool’s Xherdan Shaqiri and Benfica’s Haris Seferovic. Shaqiri will be familiar with most of the players in the England squad having either played alongside or against them. He will be hoping he can use his inside knowledge to his team’s advantage.
With all this in mind, it’s hard to envisage anything other than an England win on Sunday. They are stronger in every area of the pitch and their free-flowing attacking play should be too much for the Swiss to handle.
Forebet predicts a comfortable win for England.