Nations League: Ronaldo from the bench to match winner for Portugal

Spain defeats Switzerland

Cristiano Ronaldo scores again for Portugal. Switzerland is unable to capitalize on a long numerical advantage against Spain and thanks to Yussuf Poulsen, the Danish national team has made the perfect start to the Nations League. In the 2-0 (1-0) win in Copenhagen against Serbia, the 30-year-old Leipzig striker set up the first goal for Albert Grønbaek (36th minute) and scored the second himself with an artistic overhead kick (61st minute). The Danes also won 2-0 in their opening match against Switzerland on Thursday. The third opponent in Group 4 (League A) is defending champion Spain.

Despite being outnumbered for a long time, the Spaniards won 4-1 (2-1) in Switzerland. Portugal celebrated a late 2-1 (0-1) against Scotland, with the winning goal scored by Cristiano Ronaldo, who came on shortly after half-time (88th minute). The top star also made the difference in the match between Croatia and Poland in Group 1: Thanks to Luka Modric (52nd minute), Croatia secured a 1-0 (0-0) win against the guests led by captain Robert Lewandowski.

Despite scoring his 900th career goal, superstar Ronaldo was only on the bench for the Portuguese in the official 2-1 win against Croatia on Thursday. He was replaced by Liverpool’s Diogo Jota. He had to watch as Scott McTominay (7th) surprisingly and impressively put the Scots in the lead with a header. It was only after the break that Bruno Fernandes (54th) and Ronaldo turned the party around in Lisbon.

In Geneva, the Spaniard took the lead early on, Real Madrid’s Joselu scoring with a header in the 4th minute. Just a short time later, Fabián Ruiz (13th) increased the lead for the guests who had dominated until then. BVB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel was powerless to stop the goals. When Robin Le Normand was shown the red card (20th) for an emergency stop – the resulting free kick was hit by Zeki Amdouni on the crossbar of the Spanish goal – the Swiss found their way back into the party. Amdouni (41st) scored from a corner to tie the score. After the break, Ruiz (77th) and Ferran Torres (80th) again dashed the Swiss hopes of at least one point.