It was a busy evening of international football on Tuesday night as the curtain raised on the 2024/25 Nations League.
A total of five members of Manchester City’s squad were in action across three national teams with four facing each other.
This was during Portugal’s 2-1 win over Croatia with Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva starting for the former and Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol making the first XI of the latter.
And it was the hosts who made a strong star when Diogo Dalot broke the deadlock on seven minutes when he unleashed an expert finish into the bottom corner from the inside of the box.
With little over ten minutes left in the first half, Cristiano Ronaldo increased their lead by finishing off a ball from Nuno Mendes and hitting the roof of the net.
But their two-goal advantage was short-lived, as seven minutes later Dalot turned into his own net to cut Croatia’s deficit in half.
However, that was the final game of the match, as Roberto Martinez’s team started their Nations League campaign with three points.
Elsewhere, Manuel Akanji played the full 90 minutes in Switzerland’s 2-0 defeat away to Denmark.
Chances were at a premium in the first half with Kasper Dolberg forcing visiting goalkeeper Gregor Kobel into a smart save down to his right.
Switzerland were then reduced to 10 players shortly after the break when Nico Elvedi was dismissed after his yellow was upgraded to red with the help of VAR for a tackle deemed dangerous.
The hosts then thought they had taken the lead when Jonas WInd found the net but had advanced into an offside position.
Murat Yakin’s side defended heroically with the help of Akanji and looked likely to gain an unlikely point as the clocked ticked past the 80 minute mark.
But Patrick Dorgu’s strike opened the scoring for Denmark in the closing stages before there were further twists in the tale.
Granit Xhaka was sent off for Switzerland soon after when receiving a second yellow card before Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s effort from the edge of the box found the bottom left corner to extend Denmark’s lead.
In this match, Akanji has 96% Accurate passes, 100% Tackles won, 5 Recoveries, 3 Clearances, 2/5 Duels won, 4 Passes into final third
