UEFA Nations League Semi-Final Portugal Vs Germany: Ronaldo, Conceição Jr. & A Comeback After 25 Years

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Portugal has advanced to the final stage of the Nations League after beating Germany in a 2-1 thriller. Another chance for Ronaldo and Co. to lift the Nations League trophy after winning the inaugural Nations League in 2018.

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Portugal has advanced to the final stage of the Nations League after beating Germany in a 2-1 thriller.

There was drama before kick-off, which was delayed by 10 minutes due to a hail storm over the Allianz Arena.

Both teams also started in the same mood as the game was chaotic in the first 20 minutes and end to end as well. Both teams got chances whereas Germany had better chances to score the opening goal and throughout the first half, Diogo Costa was kept busy by the German players but the Portuguese goalkeeper was up to task until the start of the 2nd half where Wirtz connected a beautiful assist by Joshua Kimmich in the 48th minute and headed past Costa who could only dive and admire.

Martinez made 3 changes and that literally changed the game

In the 58th minute, Martinez made 3 changes and that literally changed the game. Champions league final wizard Vitinha was brought on for more control, Nelson Semedo to defend and Francisco Conceicao to provide the cutting edge up on the field.

The impact could be seen as soon as they entered the field. In the 63rd minute, Conceicao took the ball from the midfield and ran with it before releasing a Golazo that curled in devilishly to leave Ander Ter Stegen in no man’s land.

This started the Portugal comeback and who better to complete the Renaissance other than the iconic Cristiano Ronaldo. In just under 5 minutes after the 1st goal, Ronaldo scored again to put Portugal at 2-1 from a Nuno Mendes pin-point cross.

This was enough to seal the deal as it only looked like the Portugal party after the goals and Conceicao had a flurry of chances to take his tally up for the day but Portugal would be happy that they are in the finals of the Nations League.

They will face the winner of Spain Vs France.

This was the 1st Portugal win after 25 years against Germany and as fate would have it, Conceicao Sr. scored in the match and now Jr. has managed to maintain the family tradition.

“We need to enjoy the victory, we won for the first time in a while against Germany,” Martínez said afterwards. “Tactically we were exceptional and our commitment helped. It was a team victory. Now we can recover and evaluate … we want another performance with personality in this shirt.”

“The defeat is absolutely deserved,” the Germany captain Kimmich said. “We weren’t playing well enough in the first half [and] after going 1-0 up, nothing came of it. We have to learn from this. If we’re not at 100%, we can’t beat a top European team. Today was one of our worst games, purely based on our performance.”

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