5 Nations League Tips to Watch This Week - Gameweek 4

Joachim Low’s side began their international break with an extraordinary 3-3 draw with Turkey, which saw the Germany manager experiment with a whole host of debutats and lowly-capped players. Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder, Florian Neuhaus, netted on his debut, while Benfica striker Luca Waldschmidt grabbed his first international goal on his fourth appearance.

Switzerland pose an interesting challenge for the Germans, and this fixture ended in a 1-1 draw back at the start of September, with Ilkay Gundogan’s early goal being cancelled out by Silvan Widmer in the second-half.

However, we can see the win going to Germany, albeit with some difficulty, so we’ve tipped Germany to win and both teams to score.

A repeat of the 2018 World Cup Final, this game comes with much promise to entertain. Croatia have struggled in recent internationals, but bounced back with a 2-1 win over Switzerland at the beginning of the international break. Meanwhile, France began their schedule with an emphatic 7-1 victory over Ukraine, which saw Olivier Giroud become their second all-time record goalscorer and 17-year-old Eduardo Camavinga score a wonderful bicycle kick to maintain high spirits amongst Les Bleus.

Both sides possess threatening front lines and both can expose each others’ defensive frailties. Although Croatia are still a team who can cause damage, they fell victim to France once again in this fixture back in September, with the scoreline mirroring the 4-2 match we saw in the final in Russia two years ago.

It could certainly go either way, however, so we’ve backed both teams to score and there to be over 3.5 goals on this occasion.

Nations League champions Portugal will be hoping to continue their success on the international stage, and maintain their position at the top of Group A3. Their international break started in a rather underwhelming goalless draw with Spain, with Portugal looking uncharacteristically sluggish having only managed to register a single shot on target throughout the game.

The reverse of this fixture at the beginning of September ended with a 2-0 victory for Portugal, and saw Cristiano Ronaldo score his 100th, and 101st international goal.

We can see a similar type of result happening here, so we’ve tipped Portugal to be the eventual victors by either a 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 scoreline.

Harry Kane has been integral in the opening weeks of Tottenham’s Premier League season, and has impressive nine-goal involvement in four games. The England captain has registered three goals and six assists, showing a different side to his game as a creative outlet for the rest of the team.

These two sides played out a rather uneventful goalless draw in the reverse fixture, and England will be hoping to keep pace with group leaders Belgium. Gareth Southgate will be eager to get the win here, and we’ve tipped Harry Kane to lead his country to victory by getting on the scoresheet.

Two teams who are slowly making their way back from periods of footballing gloom, Italy and the Netherlands face off once again in an intriguing tie. The reverse fixture saw Italy run out eventual winners, thanks to a single goal from Nicolo Barella.

New manager Frank De Boer, who took over after Ronald Koeman’s exit to Barcelona, will be hoping to guide the Netherlands to a second successive Nations League final, having lost out to eventual champions Portugal. However, they slumped to a disappointing 1-0 defeat in his opening match as manager against Mexico, so De Boer will be looking to continue in his quest to prove the doubters wrong.

We can see this being a tight affair much like the previous meeting, and there is very little to separate the two teams on paper. With both teams possessing attacking prowess with the likes of Memphis Depay, Lorenzo Insigne and Ciro Immobile, we’ve tipped the tie to finish in either a 1-1, 2-2 or 3-3 draw.

By Charlie Rhodes