![\"Joao](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/skysports-joao-felix-portugal_7360639.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWales fell to an opening 1-0 Nations League defeat to Portugal as Cristiano Ronaldo drew a blank in Lisbon.<\/p>\n
On an evening when Ronaldo missed a slew of chances and had a second-half effort ruled out by a VAR intervention, it was his Al Nassr team-mate Joao Felix who settled the contest.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo was winning cap number 234 after deciding to prolong his international career following a disappointing World Cup, but his contribution ended when substituted after 67 minutes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Joao Felix opened the scoring for Portugal against Wales<\/p>\n
The manner of Felix’s 22nd-minute goal was cruel on Wales, deflecting off Ben Davies, but it could not be denied that Portugal deserved their victory by having 22 shots to five.<\/p>\n
Being pitched into a tough Nations League A group with Portugal, Norway and Denmark was Wales’ reward for promotion two years ago.<\/p>\n
But boss Craig Bellamy – who was on the brink of leaving in the summer to join Burnley – had welcomed the challenge as an opportunity to improve their seeding for the 2028 European Championship.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo’s frustrating night – the key moments<\/p>\n
1: Ronaldo starts Jorge Jesus’ first game in charge to earn record-extending 234th Portugal cap.<\/p>\n
36: STRAIGHT INTO THE WALL! Ronaldo can’t get enough elevation on his free-kick to test the Wales goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
37: WIDE AGAIN! Ronaldo sends a volley off target from a tight angle on his left foot.<\/p>\n
40: SHOT ON TARGET! At the fifth attempt, Ronaldo hits the target for the first time, but it is a comfortable save for Danny Ward.<\/p>\n
49: HOW HAS HE MISSED?! Ronaldo fails to convert from Ruben Neves’ cross with goal gaping.<\/p>\n
59: NO GOAL! Ronaldo finds the back of the net only for VAR to rule it out for offside.<\/p>\n
68: NIGHT OVER! Ronaldo subbed off, ending the night with an xG of 1.32, more than Wales’ entire team.<\/p>\n
Wales skipper Davies ‘disappointed’ not to draw<\/p>\n
Wales’ stand-in captain Ben Davies to BBC Sport:<\/p>\n
“On another day it could have gone another way. It’s disappointing but we played good football.<\/p>\n
“We could have done better, but it’s not an easy place to come. There are positives to take from it.<\/p>\n
“We have no doubt that we were going to fight. That’s the bare minimum. We showed a lot of guts to come out here and have a good go.<\/p>\n
“It’s a shot from outside the box which could go anywhere [that won the game]. Unfortunately, it took a deflection off me. They had other good chances, too.<\/p>\n
“We are more than capable of playing teams at this level. We just played one of the best and gave them a good go. I’m looking forward to the next one.”<\/p>\n
Fernandes: Portugal controlled the game<\/p>\n
Portugal midfielder Bruno Fernandes to BBC Sport:<\/p>\n
“I think it was a very good game. We controlled it and had a lot of chances but were not capable of scoring more. We wanted the three points and got that.<\/p>\n
“We always have a point to prove. The expectations are high on ourselves. It’s a positive win for us.<\/p>\n
“We knew they [Wales] were good. If they play in the Premier League, they need to be at a high level.<\/p>\n
“We knew they could cause us problems. We scored one, and we didn’t concede. That’s the big thing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales fell to an opening 1-0 Nations League defeat to Portugal as Cristiano Ronaldo drew a blank in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-781618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}