This Tuesday evening, Portugal were eliminated from the race for the Final Four of the League of Nations by Spain. But if one player has impressed on the Lusitanian side, it’s Nuno Mendes.
Portugal were cold-picked by Spain on Tuesday night at home in the Nations League. A goal from Alvaro Morata at the very end of the match sealed the fate of the Portuguese. However, the collective performance of the men of Fernando Santos was not so bad. And the individualities were at the level. This is the case of Nuno Mendes, who started the titular meeting. The young left-back PSG, only 20 years old, very well contained the Spanish assaults initiated by Ferran Torres, who was playing on his side. In addition to that, the former Sporting player did not hesitate to talk about the powder on certain accelerations or technical gestures of which he alone has the secret. What impress the Portuguese newspapers, much less tender with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Nuno Mendes, Portugal is thrilled
Really Nuno Mendes BUT WHO IS HE? pic.twitter.com/aZmlYcpauq
— B (@JackyBooooy) September 27, 2022
The game raved about Nuno Mendes. The Portuguese daily gave a score of 7/10 to the youngster from Paris SG, with the remark: “Attentive to the movements of Ferrán Torres, he closed the left corridor well and, between changes of rhythm and disconcerting feints, gave the right support to the accelerations of Diogo Jota”. Same story on the side of Recordwhich highlights Nuno Mendes’ desire to do well: “He entered full of desire to show his qualities and the truth is that he had a good game, with some high-level shots, such as the movement at 64 ‘in which he took out the opponents near the line raising the stadium. However, he still needs to correct some approaches and hesitations, which were visible here and there.” Finally, News O Minute tell him about a nice surprise about Mendes : “He was one of the players who harmed the opposing strategy the most. He fought like no one in his lane”. Enough to give even more confidence to Nuno Mendes, who definitely continues to surprise, whether in the colors of PSG or the Portuguese selection. Because at the same time, Cristiano Ronaldo took a lot.
For CR7, age is starting to become a problem, and even if no one questions the extreme motivation of the Manchester United player, Portugal is wondering about the international future of the 37-year-old player. ” It’s indefensible that Cristiano Ronaldo played the whole game. He lacks rhythm, confidence, speed and he lacks competition. If the idea was to defend the image of CR7, the result was exactly the opposite and this will fuel the discussion until the World Cup writes the powerful Portuguese sports daily A Bola. For O Jogo, the observation on Cristiano Ronaldo is the same or almost: “ Ronaldo is still an important player, but he can’t be untouchable. Against Spain, we needed 11 players and we had to take him out. What necessarily upset the Portuguese star who has done so much for his country.