Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal became the first team to win the UEFA Nations League trophy two times following their 5-3 penalty shootout victory over Spain.
The regulation time ended 2-2 and the Cristiano Ronaldo-led Selecao overcame Spain to emerge champions for the second time in the competition’s history. They also won the competition in 2019 when they defeated Netherlands 1-0.
Roberto Martinez’s side earned seven wins, drew two, and lost one on their way to winning the trophy in Germany on Sunday.
Portugal have now won more trophies in the last decade than any other European nation, winning the European Championships in 2016, and the Nations League in 2019, and 2025.
Cristiano Ronaldo once again showed his importance to the team with another goalscoring performance with the equaliser to make it 2-2.
The Portuguese captain is the only player over the age of 40 to score in the Nations League.
He is also the oldest player to play in the final of the competition beating the record of Luka Modric (37 years 282 days vs Spain in 2023).
He also scored against Germany in the semi-finals. He was also on target against Croatia, Poland, Denmark.
Meanwhile, Portugal coach Roberto Martinez was full of praise for his players for becoming the first team to win the Nations League twice.
He said: “Very proud. Finals are important to win. You need to be able to suffer as a team, to be resilient. To believe and keep going when Spain scores. We came back and showed a personality that was incredible.
“We are talking about a team that has a lot of experience in playing finals. I loved our attitude. Having the ability to grow during the game. I think we deserved to win the trophy.
“It’s important to have more than 11 players. It was a very physically demanding game, but I think it was even more demanding mentally. We couldn’t try to win the ball without knowing how and open up space for Spain.
“We always worked with very good ideas. We showed, when we had the ball, that we had a clear idea of how to create danger. The players on the bench came on and once again helped the final performance.”
Spain scored 25 goals in ten matches in the 2024/25 Nations League, the most by any team in a single edition of the competition.
Up next for European teams is the World Cup qualifiers in September as Portugal battle it out with Armenia, Hungary, and Republic of Ireland in Group F.
Spain will take on the likes of Bulgaria, Georgia, and Turkey in Group E.
