LONDON, May 29 — England’s chances of landing the inaugural Nations League title — a first continental trophy since the 1966 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 big money 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.”

Maguire said England will approach their clash with the Dutch — the winner will play either Switzerland or Portugal in the final — emboldened by qualifying from a group that included Spain and World Cup finalists 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.

"We’re the only semi-final team from the World Cup to manage to get through to last four as well.

"So it’s a great achievement on our behalf, and now we’ve put ourselves in for a good summer, and it’s one we’re looking forward to.” — AFP