10/06/2019

UEFA Nations League Final - Portugal win inaugural tournament, England come third after shootout

Hosts Portugal won the first Nations League trophy, to claim their second major title in three years.

Portugal 1-0 Netherlands
Goncalo Guedes scored the only goal to give Fernando Santos' side the trophy, becoming the first European nation to host and win a final of a major competition since France at the 1998 World Cup.
The narrow victory in Porto was testament to the team's unity, said Santos.
The Valencia winger received a clever reverse pass from Bernardo Silva, and smashed into the bottom right corner from the edge of the box.
Jasper Cillesen got a hand to the strike and will be disappointed he couldn't keep the shot out.
Memphis Depay - who looked lively in the semi-final win over England - had a powerful header well saved by Rui Patricio, while ex-Middlesbrough midfielder Marten de Roon blazed over the bar from range.
Photo from The Guardian
Both captains have been influential at club level this season, and Ronaldo against van Dijk was seen to be the main battle in the final.
Ronaldo won the Serie A with Juventus, while van Dijk won the Champions League with Liverpool.
Ronaldo couldn't add to his 88 international goals in this final, having scored a sublime hat-trick against Switzerland in the semi-final.
The 34-year-old had a powerful on target shot blocked by van Dijk.
He struck a shot straight at Cillesen for his best chance of the match, and had a free kick that went wide.
It was a calm and confident performance from van Dijk, but couldn't do anything to prevent Guedes' rocket which ended up being the winner.
Portugal are now unbeaten in 10, and Netherlands - depsite not qualifying for the last two major tournaments - will take positives from the progress under Ronald Koeman.

Switzerland 0-0 (0-0 AET) 5-6p England
Earlier, Jordan Pickford provided some penalty shootout heroics as England finished third against Switzerland.
The Everton keeper saved from Josip Drmic after 11 penalties were all scored - including a powerful strike himself for the Three Lions' fifth spot kick.
In a match that will go down as a consolation win, England had the better of the chances.
Both Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling hit the woodwork, while Yann Sommer saved from a Dele Alli header and Callum Wilson had the ball in the net before VAR showed he had fouled Manuel Akanji in the build-up.
And so it went to penalties, with Harry Maguire, Ross Barkley, Jadon Sancho, Sterling, Pickford and Eric Dier successful before Drmic's miss.
Switzerland were on target through Steven Zuber, Granit Xhaka, Akanji, Kevin Mbabu and Fabian Schar before Pickford made the decisive contribution.
After losing six penalty shootouts in a row, England have now won their last two, with Pickford becoming the first England goalkeeper to take a penalty in a shootout in a senior match - his subsequent save gave those England fans who stayed something to cheer.
Photo from BBC Sport
The performances of Liverpool duo Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez will have been a positive looking forward for Gareth Southgate.
They played in a manner which suggested they are more than ready to become a regular part of England's starting line-up.
Alexander-Arnold gave a superb performance at right-back, not only completing admittedly rare defensive duties but giving a masterclass of the attacking side of the game.
He created seven goalscoring chances against Switzerland, it's been four and a half years since an England player created more - James Milner versus San Marino (9).
Gomez, whose season was curtailed by a broken leg sustained at Burnley and was only a substitute when Liverpool enjoyed their glory in Madrid, also showed he will soon be pushing his way to the front of the queue of England's central defenders.
Gomez has pace, power and composure and Southgate must hope he now enjoys an injury-free run because he can become a formidable presence at the heart of England's defence.

Tournament Stats
Most Goals
Player, Team: Goals (Penalties)
Aleksandar Mitrovic, Serbia: 6 (1)
Haris Seferovic, Switzerland: 5 (0)
James Forrest, Scotland: 5 (0)
Stanislav Dragun, Belarus: 5 (0)
Yura Movsisyan, Armenia: 5 (0)
Romelu Lukaku, Belgium: 4 (0)
Adam Szalai, Hungary: 4 (0)
Giorgi Chakvetadze, Georgia: 4 (0)
Arber Zeneli, Kosovo: 4 (0)
Andre Silva, Portugal: 3 (0)

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