Basque stars shine for Spain suffer<\/h2>\n
Spain enjoyed the better chances in the first half, but there was a touch of fortune about their opening goal, as Martin Zubimendi poked home from close range on 21 minutes.<\/p>\n
A rampaging burst forward from PSG left-back Nuno Mendes allowed him to blast Portugal level but Spain had the final say before the break.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/portugal-v-spain-uefa-nations-league-2025-final.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Pedri\u2019s clever pass slipped Mikel Oyarzabal in behind Ruben Dias and the Real Sociedad striker timed his run perfectly to steer La Roja back in front.<\/p>\n
However, Portugal responded positively to the challenge after the restart, as the irrepressible Ronaldo fired home after Spain failed to clear a ball into the box.<\/p>\n
The opportunities began to flow as both sides pushed for a winner, but the contest was decided by the ruthlessness of spot kicks, as Ronaldo and Co. won the day.<\/p>\n
Low key Lamine Yamal symbolises Spain struggles<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s a sign of how important Lamine Yamal is for Spain<\/a> that an off key performance from the 17-year-old prompts major questions.<\/p>\n Not for the first time this season, he was nullified in a direct battle with Mendes, and his impact was minimal from Spain\u2019s right-side.<\/p>\n A personal xG of 0.1 underlines how well shackled he was by Mendes with just two shots on target.<\/p>\n He created just one chance in the game with only four successful passes into the opposition final third.<\/p>\n Images via One Football\/Getty Images<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The post Penalty heartbreak as Spain cede Nations League title to Portugal<\/a> appeared first on Football Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spain have lost their first final under Luis de la Fuente as La Roja suffered penalty shootout UEFA Nations League heartbreak against Portugal. A 2-2 draw after 120 minutes meant the tie went to spot kicks in Munich as De la Fuente saw his title defence ended at the Allianz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2021,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions\/2021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}