Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot of Manchester United worked together brilliantly to break the tie for Portugal in their 2-1 win over Croatia.
In their first Nations League game in Group A, Portugal played Croatia at Estádio da Luz.
Dalot and Cristiano Ronaldo, a former United forward, scored goals that were enough for Brazil to beat Croatia and win all three points.
In just seven minutes, Dalot scored when his club captain made a great pass to him in a dangerous area.
The full-back had a beautiful touch as he spun away from the defender and sent the ball into the back of the net, where Croatian custodian Dominik Livakovic couldn’t reach it.
After that, Dalot put the ball in his own net right before halftime, but it didn’t matter much for Portugal because they won in the end.
During his time in the game, Dalot dealt with two balls and picked them off half as many times.
The 25-year-old did a great job by making three stops. On the ground, he fought eight times and only won three times. During the one flying duel he had to fight, he lost.
Dalot touched the ball 56 times and made 34 of the 39 passes he tried to find his teammates for Portugal. A key pass was one of his throws.
For his part, Fernandes had 55 touches of the ball and a 91% completion rate on his passes. One pass was very important—it set up Dalot’s first goal. Besides that, he made one big chance.
On one of the two long balls he pinged, the United captain made contact. Among the three shots he took, Livakovic had to block two of them, but the third one didn’t bother the Croatian goalie.
Fernandes lost all five of his ground fights and none of his air fights. For his country, he made one stop and two interceptions.
