Cristiano Ronaldo received huge criticism from Portugal fans after playing a goalless draw in a friendly match held on Wednesday night against Spain. Ronaldo and Renato Sanchez both struck the woodwork for Portugal, who then should have won it in injury-time only for Joao Felix to miskick at the back post.
In the early half of the match, it was clearly evident that Spain were the better team against Portugal at the Jose Alvalade stadium and they were quite close through Dani Olmo strike which was not converted into goal unfortunately and match ended on 0-0 resulting in a draw. This victory must have been the great learning curve for both the squad ahead of playing in the Nations League.
“I think we were better than Portugal,” said Spain coach Luis Enrique.
“We dominated the game. For sure they had two shots on the break that hit the bar and one that Kepa saved but we had chances as well.”
However, both teams sit top of their Nations League groups, Portugal with maximum points after beating Croatia and Sweden while Spain have four after thrashing Ukraine and drawing with Germany.
Portugal will lock horns against World Champions France in the next encounter on Sunday and followed by their match against Sweden at Home.
Also, the recently concluded match between Spain and Portugal can be seen as the platform for rebuilding their teams for next year Europen Championship. Spanish Coach Enrique experimented with his playing XI which included Chelsea‘s struggling goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, Manchester City‘s 19-year-old central defender Eric Garcia and the newly called-up Sergio Canales in midfield.
For Portugal, they tried with Francisco Trincao who has recently joined Barcelona and formed a trio with Ronaldo and Andrea Silva. It was mixed game for both the sides in which first half was dominated by Spain and second half looked promising for Portugal with few chances created for Portugal Striker Ronaldo which was not connected as goals hence both the sides despite playing well in crunch moments were unable to seal the victory against each other.
