Players who could breakout at Euro 2020 – Netherlands future looks bright

Nuno Mendes – 18, Portugal – Group F

Perhaps a slight cheat with this name being selected, however, Nuno Mendes is a player who most of those watching will not know about (unless you’ve been scouring Twitter relentlessly as I have!) and has had strong links to teams such as Manchester City and Leicester City.

He holds the mantle of being among the best left-backs in Europe for his age group and upon watching him play, this will not come across as a shock.

As a wingback, he holds the role of being as adept going forward as he is defending and that is something that he definitely is capable of at a high level.

For Portugal, he supplies a natural width that allows for creators such as Bruno Fernandes to have an easier time to play threatening balls to the attackers as well as the opportunity to stretch play to the byline in which Mendes can cross the ball into the box.

Watching him play will give you the sense that he has a great level of dribbling in his locker and while he doesn’t utilize it enough to get into the box with it, it is still a plus to possess such a skill that can allow him to create ample space for himself in order to relay the ball to a teammate or take a rare shot.

When on the defensive side, he isn’t what you’d normally see by a defender who tries to challenge the opposition and try to tackle the ball, but he holds a high level of understanding of play and the natural acceleration to block and deflect the ball from going to it’s intended destination.

These two sides of his play will hopefully marry together at this year’s Euro 2020 and we might be seeing the second Portuguese revelation in 3 Euros.