‘It’s massive’: England’s Raheem Sterling on a Nations League
Winger Raheem Sterling speaks to UEFA.com about a UEFA Nations League and England’s prospects of winning their all-important semi-final opposite a Netherlands.
“The finals? It’s massive. That’s something I’d adore to do with England, with an England shirt on: to lift a trophy. We’ve got a large event here, though during a same time we know how formidable it will be.
“[Semi-final opponents a Netherlands] had a duration where they rebuilt and we consider they demeanour unequivocally good as a team. They’ve got some unimaginable players, aggressive players, defenders, and all turn their organisation is solid, as we know from a final time we played them [a 1-0 accessible win in Amsterdam in Mar 2018]. They’re a stronger organisation now, a improved team, and it’ll be a large plea for us, and it’s one that we’re adult for. [The likes of Virgil outpost Dijk, Georginio Wijnaldum, Ryan Babel and Nathan Aké] play in England as well, so we know accurately what they are able of.
“[Winning a Nations League] would give a organisation a lot of confidence. If we can win this, afterwards when we do come in positions in after tournaments, in EUROs and a World Cup, it does give we a certain side, since you’ve been there already with your inhabitant team. Once a initial [trophy] comes, we consider it’s one of those; it’ll feel a bit easier and not as pressured to do [it again].
“One thing with this manager and a team: we’re all peaceful to work as tough as we need to. The other teams are operative hard, we need to work twice as hard. we remember being with [Gareth Southgate] in a [Under]-21s and it was a same; he came in, he let players suffer themselves. He gave people that genuine faith … and some of a players he had there eventually changed adult to a comparison squad. A lot of us are underneath 25 or underneath 26. He gets on good with immature players and he wants to see them do well. He knows accurately what we’ve got in this nation and we see him [bringing] by a right players.
“The games opposite a best teams and a best players, those are a games – your Spains, your Croatias – that meant a lot some-more to us since afterwards we know where we’re at. To keep building we are going to have to play these teams some-more often, since when we get to finals and semi-finals, those are a teams we are going to be playing. So a some-more we get used to winning games like that, a some-more assured we’ll be as a organisation when we do come to those situations in bigger tournaments.
“You know it won’t be easy [to win a Nations League semi-final], though during a same time we’ve beaten [the Netherlands] already and played some good football during times, and it’s probable again. So we consider it’s a large stepping mill for us.”