Joao Felix nets the one objective of the sport, whereas Cristiano Ronaldo has an effort dominated out, as Portugal beat Wales 1-0.
Revealed On 24 Sep 2026
Joao Felix scored the one objective with a long-range shot as reigning Nations League champions Portugal opened their marketing campaign with a 1-0 home win over Wales.
Portugal, who’ve gained two of the 4 finals for the reason that competitors was launched in 2018, dominated possession and outshot Wales 19-4 in Lisbon however squandered a string of probabilities.
Their solely objective got here after 22 minutes when a low scuffed shot by Felix from the sting of the field took a slight deflection off Wales captain Ben Davies and skipped contained in the far submit past Danny Ward’s determined dive.
Because it has for some twenty years, Portugal’s assault revolved round Cristiano Ronaldo. Each time the 41-year-old, who made his nationwide debut in 2003 and has since scored a file 146 worldwide objectives, touched the ball close to the objective, the roar of the house crowd rose a number of octaves.
Ronaldo discovered the facet netting as soon as and shinned an inviting volley excessive over from shut vary. After an hour he slid the ball into the Wales internet however, to his evident disbelief, was dominated offside.
He was nonetheless shaking his head when he was changed seven minutes later.
The group grew quieter, and Portugal’s play drifted after Ronaldo’s departure.
Wales got here agonisingly near equalising, twice, from their one good probability.
First, Brennan Johnson chipped goalkeeper Diogo Costa and hit the face of the bar. With Costa stranded, Lewis Koumas and Dan James each went for the rebound. Koumas ended up taking pictures tamely straight at defender Ruben Dias on the road.
