Harry Maguire: 'England squad have winning mentality'

England face Holland in their Nations League semi-final a week on Thursday in Guimaraes, with the final taking place three days later in Porto.

Defender Maguire said: “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a trophy.

“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 (the City quartet joined up with the squad at St George’s Park on Monday).

“We have a lot of winning mentality in our team and hopefully we can transfer it to international football now.”

England are in the semis of the inaugural tournament having topped Group 4 after beating Spain and Croatia in their final two pool matches.

When asked how important the Nations League was, Maguire, a key figure in England’s run to the World Cup semi-finals last summer, said: “It’s really important.

“I think you’ve seen how competitive the teams have been in the Nations League.

“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.

“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.”

The other semi-final sees hosts Portugal face Switzerland, the day before England face the Dutch. On the day of the final, the two beaten semi-finalists will meet in a third place play-off in Guimaraes.

Maguire was also asked about being linked with Manchester United, and the 26-year-old Leicester centre-back said: “When I’m away with England I don’t think about anything to do with club football.

“As soon as I wear this badge it’s really important for myself to focus on England and nothing else. At the moment, nothing is going through my head in terms of club football.

“I’m fully focused on the two games coming up, that’s where my head is at the moment.”

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