Match Report:
The UEFA Nations League championship came to a fruitful end in a marvelous fashion as the curtains were drawn on Sunday, June 8 2025 with the grand final between Spain and Portugal coming off at the Allianz Arena in Germany where Portugal had to come from behind in two different occasions to level up with the La Rojas.
Before the final, the third-place playoff game took place when hosts, Germany who lost narrowly to Spain in the semifinals took on 2021 winners, France in a very fierce encounter as the latter emerged victorious in a thrilling fashion — a game which saw hosts, Germany fall short again in a back-to-back loss for the first time in front of their home crowd since 2023.
At the MHPArena in Stuttgart, captain Mbappé showed up in a very incredible fashion as he scored and and assisted in the third-place play offs to give Les Bleus the bronze medal in Germany. He scored a stunningly finessed goal to put France up first off in the dying minutes of the first half after a superb assist from Aurelien Tchouameni.
In the second half, Denis Undav was introduced as he became a huge threat for France as he exhibited his prowess on the 53rd minute of the game but had his goal disallowed after an extensive VAR review and that was only the chance Germany had to get to respond to the deficit.
On the 84th minute, captain Mbappé stood up again for his side as he ran an electrifying pace from the halfway line to reach the final third, the 18-yard box and found Michael Olise on the right side as he squared it off to give France the upper hand to finish off the game at 2-0 to seal the third place.
In the grande finale moment between Spain and Portugal at the Allianz Arena in Munich, where the UEFA Champions League final was hosted on the 31st day of May 2025, Roberto Martinez side saw off a Luis de la Fuente side in a penalty shootout as they locked horns for 120 minutes prior.
In the game, both teams were optimistic and very confident of a positive outcome as they were really geared up towards the final where they both kept their respective opposition at bay but on the 21st minute, Zubimendi scores the opener with a powerful shot within the 6-yard box to power Spain into the lead over the Portuguese side who were unable to stop the speed of play and transition from the Spanish side.
Seven minutes exactly after the opening goal, Champions League winner with PSG, Nuno Mendes stood up tall for Portugal as he scored the equalizer, a resurgent run from the left side of attack to pull parity for his side. The brilliant left back capped off a brilliant performance with such a brilliant goal too.
With just a minute remaining to end the first half, Mikel Oyarzabal scored the second to put Spain up again, making history as the first Spaniard to score in three different international fianls for Spain, scored in the 2021 Nations League final against France, the European Championship final against England in 2024 and the 2025 Nations League final against Portugal.
Leading before the break, Spain had the upper hand against the Portuguese side until the second period became a different ball game altogether as captain Cristiano Ronaldo showed up again for his side, scoring his 138th international goal in 221 international games for his side. The all-time top scorer stood out in the game immensely with his impressive effort to pull parity for his side.
The game got increasingly tense from then until the final whistle was fired by the referee, indicating the end of the game at 90 minutes.
Extra time was spent and after 30 minutes, the game remained at 2-2 before an obvious penalty shootout was declared to identify the winner of the 2025 EUFA Nations League title.
The penalty shootout went on until captain Morata missed on the fourth shoot for Spain, giving Ruben Neves a room to score the final penalty to give Portugal the victory, handing them their second successive title of the tournament after two finals.
The Portuguese side have won three out of three international finals since 2010.
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