Newcastle’s Fabian Schar, is looking forward to the challenge of Ronaldo on Wednesday night.
Switzerland meet Portugal with Ronaldo and teammates having home advantage, as they host the semi-finals and final of the Nations League.
Switzerland are the 15/2 outsiders of four to win the tournament now they have reached this semi-final stage.
However, Fabian Schar says the Swiss have a habit of upsetting the odds.
Whilst other countries might have bigger names, such as Ronaldo, the Newcastle defender thinks for Switzerland ‘It is like a club mentality and that is our biggest strength.’
A remarkable game to reach this point saw Switzerland go 2-0 down to a star studded Belgian team featuring Eden Hazard and the rest, only for the Swiss to come back and win 5-2.
Fabian Schar last played in March for Switzerland, creating both goals in a 2-0 win in Georgia after having earlier been knocked out for a matter of seconds after a clash of heads.
The centre-back then prevented from playing against Denmark a few days later as a massive debate kicked off about football not taking head injuries seriously enough.
The Nations League semis are:
Wednesday 5 June – Switzerland v Portugal
Thursday 6 June – Holland v England
Then the final and third/fourth matches will both take place on Sunday 9 June.
Fabian Schar:
“England are the form side, Portugal are at home and of course have Ronaldo, while Dutch football is on the rise.
“Everyone seems to write us off going into every tournament, but that suits us fine, we are the underdogs who always do well.
“Everyone seems surprised that we have reached the semi-finals but we did so by beating Belgium, who are one of the best teams in the world right now.
“So it is logical to think that if you win against the Belgians, you are capable of beating anyone.
“We may not have the star names but there is a lot of quality in this squad and the team spirit is the best I have ever known.
“It is like a club mentality and that is our biggest strength.
“Of course it (Nations League) is not the World Cup or European Championships but like the other three teams, we want to win it.
“The format has worked well so far and we are proud to have made it this far.
“We will be even prouder if we can be the first to lift the trophy.”