When the moment came Cristiano Ronaldo hid his face and leant on his teammates. He scored the goal that put Portugal level in this final but had been withdrawn, exhausted, late in normal time and now, as the men left on the field lined up on the halfway line, he stood on the touchline where he could not watch but he could hear the roar as Rúben Neves scored the penalty that took Portugal to the title, and then he slipped to his knees and the tears came. It had taken a shootout but they have their second Nations League, defeating Spain in Munich.
Goals from Martin Zubimendi, Nuno Mendes and then Mikel Oyarzabal had seen Spain take a 2-1 lead before Ronaldo made it 2-2 on the hour. Now, an hour after that, it all came down to two shots: Álvaro Morata missed Spain’s fourth spot kick and Neves scored Portugal’s fifth to win 5-3 on penalties, allowing Ronaldo to collect the 34th trophy of his career, aged 40. There was a smile, a joke about its weight and then he carried it to his teammates and lifted it into the sky.
It had been a long night, and if this was a battle of the generations between him and Lamine Yamal, as it had been billed, the elder man won it. In truth, though, while the focus was on the Portugal captain and the Spanish teenager, 23 years his junior, cameras following them even when both had been withdrawn and were sitting on the bench, this was about many more men. About Oyarzabal and Zubimendi, Mendes, Rafael Leão and, in the end, Diogo Costa, who dived to his right to save from Morata. Neves then smashed hard and low, turning to see red shirts running towards him.
