Portugal regret 'unfair' elimination from UEFA Nations League

Portugal manager Fernando Santos has claimed that his teams elimination from UEFA Nations League A was unfair At the Municipal Stadium in Braga visitors Spain upset Portugal 10 with Alvaro Moratas 88thminute strike to top Group 2 with 11 points Portugal finished second with 10 pointsIt is true that in the first half Spain had more possession without creating major problems We lacked some patience we played with a lot of long passes but at passing the ball the team did well and got there the coach explainedAccording to Santos Portugal created goal situations while Spain did nothing but try to stay more in possession reports XinhuaWe tried to correct that at halftime and we were pushing hard at the restart We had a great opportunity but we didnt take it and then Spain started to have more ball and we had more difficulty lowering the lines without being able to connect the game he saidThe coach regretted that he wanted to be in the finals of the UEFA Nations League and that he worked for it with the conviction that he was going to make itPortugal midfielder Ruben Neves said that he had expected a difficult match against a qualified opponent but that they needed to win because they were at home In the first 15 minutes we gave Spain too much space to have the ball although they didnt create great scoring opportunities he arguedThen we adjusted our pressure we controlled the game well and we had some opportunities in the first half In the second we started well we had more ball we created clear goalscoring opportunities again but unfortunately we couldnt score he lamentedAccording to him it was a distraction move that allowed a cross to come out into the area and that ended up resulting in a goal It had happened to us once and we made the same mistake again Now there is no room to think more about this competition he concludedMeanwhile Spain coach Luis Enrique celebrated with rare euphoria after his teams qualification for the semifinals of the UEFA Nations League AAfter beating hosts Portugal 10 in Braga Enrique stressed that there is still one step to go to the final and win the trophy after Spain finished runnersup last yearWe had one objective in this challenge to take the ball out of Portugals possession We achieved that goal in the first part but without depth without creating danger he explainedIn the second half we corrected we improved and with the arrival of the rested players with a better physical level we generated a continuous approach to the goal until we scored near the end It was decisive said a visibly moved EnriqueThe coach also noted that it was important not to forget the work of those who were already on the field from the beginning which tired the opponentsHe explained the substitution of defender Hugo Guillamon to make way for Sergio Busquets at halftime saying Guillamons yellow card could have made it easy for Portugal who have great strikersBoth teams played their game Portugal played in the transitions and defended well as a block Spain deserved to win Football is sometimes unfair the Portuguese may think they had enough chances to win but we scored The result is what matters in the end he addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever