England deservedly claimed the consolation prize of third place at the Nations League 6-5 on penalties on Sunday after a 0-0 draw against a limited Switzerland in Guimaraes.

Gareth Southgate's men dominated the 120 minutes in northern Portugal, but it had to be goalkeeper Jordan Pickford who denied Josip Drmic's penalty and win the match.

Southgate made seven changes to the side that started Thursday's 3-1 semi-final defeat to the Netherlands with six of those involved in last weekend's Champions League final returning.

Harry Kane was restored as captain and nearly made an impact inside two minutes, cheekily chipping Sommer, but the Swiss goalkeeper just touched the ball onto the crossbar.

England enjoyed far the better of the chances in an unsurprisingly subdued encounter, a third-place playoff in a newly-formed competition.

Sterling should have scored when he shot too close to Sommer after good build-up work by Kane.

Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka had the best chance for the Swiss just before the hour when he was picked out at the edge of the box by Harris Seferovic, but his powerful shot was turned behind by Pickford.

Any hope of a moment of inspiration form Vladimir Petkovic's men disappeared when Liverpool's Xherdan Shaqiri hobbled off injured 25 minutes from time.

Kane was also substituted having again struggled to make an impact in his third appearance since returning from a two-month injury layoff.

Wilson replaced the England captain and thought he had won the game five minutes from time when he bundled home after Alli's header came back off the bar.

However, just as in the defeat to the Dutch, England saw a goal ruled out after a VAR review for a foul earlier in the move by Wilson. England however, got their reward from the spot soon after.

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.