Manchester United duo Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot were part of Portugal’s winning side against Spain in the Nations League final on Sunday night.
Portugal fought hard to reach the final of the competition and Spain were clear favourites before kick-off due to their incredible football.
But the team which included Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes worked tirelessly through the game, with Nuno Mendes and Cristiano Ronaldo scoring to take the game to extra time.
Nothing could separate the two teams and penalties decided the final, with Portugal’s Diogo Costa making a crucial save against Alvaro Morata before Ruben Neves slotted the winning spot kick into the back of the net.
Portugal have now won the competition for the second time, and their third trophy in international football. For someone like Fernandes, it feels like he deserves this after a stunning campaign for a poor United side.
Fernandes praises three Portugal stars
Fernandes spoke to the Portuguese media after the game and explained that Roberto Martínez’s men believed they were of the same level as Spain heading into the tie.
The United captain then highlighted the danger Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams could cause on the flanks and how Portugal had to be aggressive when they lost the ball to avoid fast-counters on those flanks.
Finally, the 30-year-old midfielder, who also slotted away a calm penalty as you’d expect, explained that individual quality was on Portugal’s side in the game – praising the performance of Nuno Mendes and the penalty shootout heroics of Diogo Costa and Ruben Neves.
“Everything we did during the game helped us win. We knew we were going up against a great team, and at the same time we knew we were a team of the same level,” said Fernandes, as per Abola.
“We knew Spain’s qualities, we were very aggressive when losing the ball, which was very important and we had done against Germany, because we knew they had two players on the wings who were very important.
Then we had individual talent on our side, such as Nuno [Mendes], our left-sided player, who ended up running over everyone and ended up giving us two moments of great joy, with his runs.
Individual talent is what makes you win the game, like Diogo Costa ’s save and Rúben Neves’ penalty.”
Fernandes’ point relates to United’s struggles
Fernandes last point can be related to United – a team which lacks the same amount of individual quality which his Portuguese team has.
Ruben Amorim is working on a tactical approach at Old Trafford and there is enough talk about the formation to make your ears go numb.
In the end, like Fernandes says, winning games comes down to individual quality more often than not. While the tactics and approach also need to be spot on in the long run, United’s biggest priority right now should be getting players who can make the difference.
Fernandes will certainly be excited to play alongside Matheus Cunha and potentially Bryan Mbeumo too – these are players who can take that workload off Fernandes’ shoulders.
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