Portugal win inaugural Uefa Nations League as Guedes sinks Netherlands – Evening Standard

Portugal have become the first team to win the Uefa Nations League after beating Netherlands in Sunday’s final in Porto.

Goncalo Guedes’ second-half strike was all it took for the hosts to claim this new trophy in an albeit rather flat final, fans here robbed of the Cristiano Ronaldo vs Virgil van Dijk battle they all craved, with the hat-trick hero of Wednesday quiet.

In his place, Bernardo Silva was superb.

Portugal boss Fernando Santos had pledged to ‘bring joy’ to the home support with a Nations League win, and made three changes in order to do so.

Youngster Joao Felix, having underwhelmed in the semi-final, and Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves dropped out, with Guedes and Danilo drafted in. Jose Fonte replaced an injured Pepe at the back.

Ronald Koeman, meanwhile, stuck with the same XI which had worked for 120 minutes to overcome England in Guimaraes.

Santos was certain Holland’s venture into extra-time would not have an impact, but the first half told a different story, with clear-cut chances in short supply.

Their best opportunity came when Steven Bergwijn latched onto a sloppy back-pass from Silva before he was stopped in his tracks by Ruben Dias.

Neither Dias nor Fonte were troubled too much thereafter as the hosts grew stronger throughout the first half, Ronaldo and Silva finding more and more space in which to probe the Dutch defence and Bruno Fernandes looking to get things moving from midfield.

Holland had not managed one shot by the time both teams headed in at the break. Frenkie de Jong, so effective against England three days ago, had a lot on his plate here with Silva troublesome going forward and William Carvalho busting a gut to stop the 22-year-old moving the ball towards goal.

Fulham loanee Ryan Babel was not sent back out for the second half, with Quincy Promes on in his place.

The changed worked, to an extent. Those in blue looked far livelier following the restart, and Koeman moved to add to that threat with the introduction of Donny van de Beek, perhaps unlucky not to have been handed a start after an encouraging appearance off the bench in the semi-final.

Less than 30 seconds after that change, however, Portugal rocked their visitors. Silva had been at his brilliant best in the second half of the semi-final, and was working towards it here, picking up a ball neatly tucked through the legs of Matthijs de Ligt by Guedes.

The Manchester City man charged into the penalty area before clipping the ball back to the edge of the box and returning the favour to Guedes, who whipped it into the bottom corner, via a soft touch on the glove of Jasper Cillessen.

Minutes later a first effort from the Dutch brought hope, Memphis Depay heading down from Van de Beek’s cross, but nothing too concerning for Rui Patricio.

The hosts were here thanks to the brilliance of Ronaldo, but this was a team performance, a title won as a collective, Silva the star of the show with the Juventus man relatively quiet following his dazzling hat-trick in midweek.

Portugal continued to press, probe and outstrip their Dutch opponents and so they are history makers, the first holders of this Nations League trophy.

History will judge where that should rank on the honours list, but those inside the Estadio do Dragao did not care, they were reveling in the joy Santos and his squad so wanted to deliver.

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