{"id":1091585,"date":"2019-06-04T11:21:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T10:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1091585"},"modified":"2019-06-04T11:23:09","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T10:23:09","slug":"jose-fonte-uefa-nations-league-finals","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/jose-fonte-uefa-nations-league-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Jose Fonte on Nations League finals hopes and Portugal\u2019s next generation of talent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>EXCLUSIVE \u2013 Jose Fonte is hoping for a Portugal vs England showdown in this week&#8217;s inaugural Uefa Nations League finals.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The hosts face Switzerland on Wednesday before England take on the Netherlands the following day for a place in Sunday&#8217;s final.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The inaugural Nations League finals: Five things to know&#8230;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Hosts Portugal face Switzerland in the first Nations League semi-final on Wednesday.<\/li>\n<li>That is followed by England vs Netherlands on Thursday.<\/li>\n<li>The losers will play a third-place play-off at 3pm BST on Sunday.<\/li>\n<li>The final takes place at 8:45pm GMT on the same day.<\/li>\n<li>Lille defender Fonte is relishing an opportunity to test himself against the best.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7273460-five-things-we-think-will-happen-in-the-2019-champions-league-final-and-in-the-europa-league<\/p>\n<p>Fonte has been named in the Portugal squad for the tournament and although he believes it will be a tough trophy to win regardless of the opposition, the 35-year-old admitted he would like to face England.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve got Switzerland and it&#8217;s going to be a tough game. They have a very, very good squad. To be in the final four it means they have a very good squad,&#8221; the Lille defender told Squawka.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know it&#8217;s going to be hard so if we can get past them between England and Netherlands &#8211; whoever [we play] it will be a great game between them.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"UEFA Nations League: Everything You Need to Know\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-fJL-ebgvvA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"http:\/\/sqwk.at\/Squawka-Sub\" rel=\"noopener\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They both have great players and great strikers. It&#8217;s always nice to play against England as I lived in England for 10 years and have so many friends there and I have family there.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It would be nice to have Portugal vs England perhaps but then on the other side I have Ronald Koeman who is a manager who is very dear to me and I have teammates in Holland who are very dear to me so it&#8217;s difficult to predict.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Fonte backs Lille teammate Rafael Le\u00e3o for the top<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Although Fonte is one of six players in Portugal&#8217;s squad over the age of 30, the reigning European champions still have a strong clutch of exciting youngsters developing just under the surface.<\/p>\n<p>And Fonte has backed Lille teammate Rafael Le\u00e3o, as well as the likes of Joao Felix and Florentino Luis from Benfica to make it to the top.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1080018\" src=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/03\/23131056\/GettyImages-1131666145.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/03\/23131056\/GettyImages-1131666145.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/03\/23131056\/GettyImages-1131666145-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/03\/23131056\/GettyImages-1131666145-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/03\/23131056\/GettyImages-1131666145-66x44.jpg 66w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In terms of young Portugal players who can reach the top level, I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve heard about a few of these kids &#8211; but we have Joao Felix &#8211; he&#8217;s a good prospect a good young player who can get there,&#8221; Fonte added when asked about the talent coming through the Portugal ranks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But you also have others &#8211; Florentino Lu\u00eds from Benfica \u2013 a very, very good player.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You also have Rafael Le\u00e3o from Lille. He can be a top striker. He&#8217;s scored nine or 10 goals this season he&#8217;s only 19 or 20 and is fast, super powerful, tall. He can go all the way, he finishes well and can go all the way to the top.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Without a doubt, Rafael Le\u00e3o can be a top, top player and if he keeps listening, keeps working hard, keeps his feet on the ground and keeps grinding he can definitely be a top player because he has all the talent for that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><script>(function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(d.getElementById(id))return;js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src='https:\/\/embed.playbuzz.com\/sdk.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}(document,'script','playbuzz-sdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"playbuzz\" data-id=\"66c974de-b77b-4864-9922-f0029ea5359e\" data-show-share=\"false\" data-show-info=\"false\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EXCLUSIVE \u2013 Jose Fonte is hoping for a Portugal vs England showdown in this week&#8217;s inaugural Uefa Nations League finals.\u00a0 The hosts face Switzerland on Wednesday before England take on the Netherlands the following day for a place in Sunday&#8217;s final. The inaugural Nations League finals: Five things to know&#8230; Hosts Portugal face Switzerland in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":1091685,"parent":0,"menu_order":6583,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Portugal vs Switzerland: Jose Fonte on Nations League finals hopes","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Jose Fonte is hoping for a Portugal vs England showdown in this week's inaugural Uefa Nations League finals.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1091585","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Portugal vs Switzerland: Jose Fonte on Nations League finals hopes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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