Ronaldo rescues Portugal with five-minute turnaround against Germany – The Home of Irish Football

UEFA Nations League semi-final match report: Germany 1 – 2 Portugal

Portugal came from a goal down to knock Germany out of the UEFA Nations League, courtesy of Francisco Conceicao and Cristiano Ronaldo goals.

There was an electric start to this Nations League semi-final in Munich as chances came from both sides in the first 20 minutes.

From the off Pedro Neto showed how dangerous he was going to be, receiving the ball from Bernardo Silva and winning a corner from Waldemar Anton.

Germany immediately travelled up the other end, with Florian Wirtz crossing the ball to Joshua Kimmich who then squared the ball to Leon Goretzka, but his shot went straight into the hands of Diogo Costa.

Cristiano Ronaldo had a chance of his own, after Neto played a cross into his path, the 40-year-old did not get any purchase on his effort, and it skipped towards Marc-Andre Ter Stegen in the German goal.

After a couple more off-target attempts from the visiting team, Die Mannschaft had two massive chances.

First, Pavlovic darted into the box and went to ground. Nothing was given and then Woltemade fired a close range shot that was saved by Costa. Second around a minute and a half later, Costa this time denied Leon Goretzka’s well struck effort from the edge of the box.

Germany came out after the break much sharper, as Florian Wirtz played a clever one-two pass with Kimmich (on the night of his 100^th cap), finding Wirtz’s head to give the Germans the lead in Munich.

Referee Slavko Vincic was sent to the screen for a review but only needed one look to confirm the goal.

A triple substitution from Portugal completely changed the game. Particularly the introduction of Francisco Conceicao, who within five minutes of entering the field of play would find the equaliser.

Receiving the ball just inside the box he is allowed to advance towards the box and unleashed a beautiful curling effort past a helpless Ter Stegen.

Five minutes after that, Portugal had the lead. Nuno Mendes dashed down the left hand side with pace and squared the ball across the box towards Ronaldo who only needed to tap the ball into an empty net and put his country in front. His 137^th goal for Portugal.

Conceicao proved to be a thorn in Germany’s side and could have left the game with a hattrick. He attempted an identical shot to the one that produced his goal but missed the target on that occasion.

Ter Stegen did his best to keep Germany alive, producing a miraculous double save late on, first from substitute Diogo Jota and then from the electric Conceicao from point blank range.

With that the referee ended the game and Portugal advanced to the final of the Nations League to be played against Spain or France in Munich on Sunday.

Germany: Marc-Andre Ter Stegen; Waldemar Anton (Felix Nmecha 71), Robin Koch, Jonathan Tah; Leon Goretzka, Joshua Kimmich, Maximilian Mittelstadt (Robin Gosens 60), Aleksandar Pavlovic (Karim Adeyemi 71); Leroy Sane (Serge Gnabry 60), Florian Wirtz, Nick Woltemade (Niclas Fullkrug 60).

Subs not used: Oliver Baumann, Alexander Nubel, Pascal Gross, Deniz Undav, Thilo Kehrer, David Raum, Robert Andrich, Tom Bischof.

Portugal: Diogo Costa; Ruben Dias, Goncalo Inacio, Nuno Mendes, Joao Neves (Nelson Semedo 58); Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Neves (Vitinha 58), Bernardo Silva; Pedro Neto (Diogo Jota 83), Cristiano Ronaldo (Joao Palhinha 90), Trincao (Francisco Conceicao 58).

Subs not used: Jose Sa, Rui Silva, Antonio Silva, Diogo Dalot, Goncalo Ramos, Joao Felix, Renato Veiga, Rafael Leao, Pedro Goncalves, Rodrigo Mora.

Referee: Slavko Vincic

Attendance: 65,823

extratime.com player of the match: Francisco Conceicao (Portugal)