Portugal beat Norway in Oslo with goals from Félix and Ramos
Félix opened the scoring, Haaland levelled from a loose ball after a free kick, and Gonçalo Ramos won it by chipping Nyland. Portugal lead Group A4 on six points and head to Copenhagen.
Portugal won 2-1 in Oslo and now sit alone at the top of Nations League Group A4 with six points from two games. The result is on UEFA’s official match page; what the scoreline doesn’t tell you is that Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, watched the whole thing from the bench.
Jorge Jesus made four changes to the side that beat Wales. Gonçalo Ramos, João Neves, Francisco Conceição and João Palhinha started, and Ronaldo stayed on the bench for all 90 minutes. Afterwards Jesus said he had agreed with his captain that he would come on for the last half hour, but Ramos was playing well, had scored and had another goal ruled out, and “the game was telling me something else”. He insisted Ronaldo was fit to play.
Félix again
On 17 minutes Nuno Mendes burst down the left, Pedro Neto cut the ball back and João Félix controlled it on the edge of the area before placing it out of Nyland’s reach. It was his second goal in as many games for the national team, after the one that settled Jesus’s debut against Wales.
Haaland answers, Nyland helps
Norway were the better side for long spells (14 shots to 6 by half-time), and Diogo Costa had already denied Haaland twice. The equaliser came on 51 minutes: Palhinha brought down Ryerson on the edge of the box, Ødegaard struck the free kick, Diogo Costa pushed it away, and Erling Haaland, the one player nobody wants to see loitering there, was on the rebound to level it.
Portugal’s reply took two or three minutes. Nyland tried to play out from the back, gave the ball straight to Gonçalo Ramos, and Ramos lifted it over him into an empty goal. That was the winner, and it came from a mistake nobody in red and green had forced.
What it leaves
Portugal now have six points, Norway and Denmark three each, and Wales none. The team travel to Copenhagen to face Denmark on Thursday and host Norway at the Estádio do Dragão on 4 October, with top spot in the group on the line.
The open question is when Ronaldo plays. He headed straight for the dressing room at full time, and Jesus said he would talk to him. The window still has two games left.
By Vasco Almada
Image: YantsImages / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
