Portugal won the title in penalties of the 2025 UEFA Nations League, after drawing 2-2 with Spain in 120 minutes of action in Munich. Diogo Costa was the hero for the Portuguese team by stopping the fourth penalty taken by Álvaro Morata, and Ruben Neves unleashed the celebrations for his team.
PUBLICIDAD
In this way, the winning streak of the Spanish national team was cut short, which had won the Nations League 2023 and the Euro 2024.
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On the other hand, Portugal achieved the third title in its history at the adult level, all in the last 10 years and all with Cristiano Ronaldo as the main figure: the previous ones were the Euro 2016 and the first Nations League, which was held in 2019.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the tying goal
Luis de la Fuente’s team took the lead twice in Munich, through Martin Zubimendi (21′) and Mikel Oyarzabal (45′), but Nuno Mendes (26′) and Cristiano Ronaldo (61′) equalized the score on two occasions for Portugal.
This title becomes, at 40 years old, the third at the national team level for Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese captain was one of the standout players in a match where Nuno Mendes shined, being present in both goals of his team in attack and, in defense, neutralized a very imprecise Lamine Yamal.
CR7 was on the field until the 88th minute, but due to a muscle injury, he was replaced by Gonçalo Ramos. However, he left with his first goal in a final playing for Portugal: he did not score in the decisive matches of Euro 2016 (1-0 against France) or the Nations League 2019 (1-0 against the Netherlands), nor did he score in the final of Euro 2004 when Greece surprised the Portuguese national team.
When the penalty shootout took place, Cristiano Ronaldo was seen very nervous. He didn’t want to watch his teammates’ shots, and when Portugal won, he knelt on the grass crying.
Again on penalties
The Nations League was decided, as it was two years ago between Spain and Croatia, on penalties.
A round in which they would reach the eighth shot without fail thanks to the shots converted by Gonçalo Ramos, Mikel Merino, Vitinha, Baena, Bruno Fernandes, Isco, and Nuno Mendes. There, with a score of 4-3, Costa stopped the weak penalty taken by Morata and Portugal repeated the title thanks to a crossed shot by Ruben Neves.