London: England’s chances of landing the inaugural Nations League title – a first continental trophy since the 1966 men’s World Cup — have been boosted by Manchester City’s exploits last season, says central defender Harry Maguire.
The 26-year-old Leicester star — linked to a move to Manchester United — said City players like Raheem Sterling, Kyle Walker and Fabian Delph had brought a winning mentality to the squad following their historic domestic treble.
This plus the confidence gained in the England camp from their surprise run to the semi-finals of the World Cup last year – Maguire was one of the standout players — stand England in good stead for their Nations League semi-final against the Netherlands on June 6 in Guimaraes, Portugal.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a trophy,” said Maguire.
“You want to be winners. We’ve got a lot of winners in our team – (as) you’ve seen with the Man City boys who have just turned up, and won three trophies this year. We have a lot of winning mentality in our team and hopefully we can transfer it to international football now,” he added.
Maguire said England will approach the match – the winner will play either Switzerland or Portugal in the final – emboldened by qualifying from a group that included Spain and Croatia.
“We haven’t really been beating the high-ranked teams in recent years, so to get through a group with Spain and Croatia is really important,” said Maguire.
