New era. Portugal beats Wales at the premiere of Jorge Jesus

Portugal received the first game of the walk of Jorge Jesus (and the defense of the trophy) on the first journey of the League of Nations and achieved a triumph by 1-0, with John Felix to have the authorship of the first goal of the new 'age' in the team of quinas.

With an initial eleven that had only one change compared to Roberto Martínez's last as a selector, Jorge Jesus launched Ruben Neves for the game record, leaving João Neves in the alternate bank, aligning with João Félix and Cristiano Ronaldo in front of the attack.

One of the promises made by the new national technician was even the change in the dynamics of the midfield and the men of the last third, with a game to have a João Félix more ‘lonely’ and Reuben Neves to ‘hold the fort’, serving as a true ‘roll’ for the possible counterattacks of Wales.

The truth is that these were not very common, although the first time of danger came from the feet of the British, even with the Koumas bid to be cancelled out of play, the ball ‘kissed’ the outside of the nets of the goal defended by Diogo Costa.

However, from then on he only gave Portugal, mainly in the first part, with several poisonous attacks to see Cristiano Ronaldo and Rùben Neves being fought by the guardian Danny Ward or by the lack of aim.

But the 22nd minute managed to be a celebration for the Portuguese present at the Stadium of Alvalade, after João Félix took matters into his own account and finished, still outside the large area, for the first goal of the meeting.

Soon after, more opportunities emerged, but the match was even with the minimum margin for the interval, without there being more chance that they would create real danger to the goals of both teams, and Diogo Costa was a mere spectator in these initial 45 minutes.

In the second part, Cristiano Ronaldo continued in his incessant quest for another goal to approach the 1,000 mark in his career, having had a failure that seemed right goal even to open, with his deviation coming out over the beam at 49 minutes.

Ten minutes later, he even put the ball in the bottom of the nets, celebrated with the typical ‘Siuuu’ and... saw the assistant referee and the VAR cancel the party, by one out of play taken at the millimeter, leaving the game with the 1-0 coming from the break.

Cristiano Ronaldo did not have a chance to “bless” Jorge Jesus’ debut, as the selector fulfilled the promise that he would remove him from the field whenever justified, with Gonçalo Ramos entering the place of the captain of the team of quinas, at 68 minutes of play.

Since then, the enthusiasm on the benches has been played only by visitors, as silence has shaken the Portuguese, who also had no great reason to be enthusiastic, unlike the British.

This is because, in a caricato (which could have gone wrong), Diogo Costa was sure of an out-of-game that did not exist and saw the ball go to the beam without being on the goal, with the recharge being saved by Reuben Dias, who avoided the surprise and the playoff, at 75 minutes.

There were no more opportunities until the end of the match, with the victory being fair, even in the result, for the team of quinas, which debuts in this edition of the League of Nations with a victory, starting with the right foot to defend the title won in 2025.