Portugal showing positive signs of being a competitive squad even without their star player, Cristiano Ronaldo as Selecao Das Quinas got a precious 1-0 win over Italy in their latest UEFA Nations League fixture.
Both teams played with a relative new composition as Fernando Santos’ men played several of his emerging talents, while his opposite number, Roberto Mancini is also doing a very similar thing.
It was the home side though that looked more dominant as they took advantage of that relatively new Azzurri setup, which didn’t really gel as just yet from defense up to the front line.
Italy were struggling a bit, notably with Portugal fast counter attacking play which put Mancini’s side under lots of pressure throughout the first 45 minutes.
After surviving several close calls, Azzurri’s defense finally got beaten early in the second half when Andre Silva puts away a nice opportunity from inside the penalty area.
That goal lasted until the final whistle was blown as no more goals were scored by either teams with Portugal comfortable seeing off the match.
Meanwhile, Turkey pulled off a stunning come back as they turned a 2-0 deficit into 3-2 victory in the second half alone, despite having to play away against Sweden.
The home side made a bright start as Isaac Kiesse Thelin opened the scoring on 34 minutes, followed by Viktor Claesson’s effort early in the second half.
Going two goals down at the start of second half didn’t weaken Turkey’s passion as they immediately pulled one back through their star midfielder, Hakan Calhanoglu.
Mircea Lucescu’s men finally got back on level terms on the 88 minutes with an effort from Emre Akbaba, who continued his heroic by scoring the winner deep in stoppage time to compete his national team’s stunning come back.