• Source:JND
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UEFA Nations League Final 2025: Portugal's star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winning goal and helped the team qualify for the UEFA Nations League summit clash after defeating Germany by 2-1 on Wednesday. This was their first victory against Germany after 2000 as they aim to win the Nations League trophy for the first time after the first edition way back in 2019. This was Ronaldo's 137th international goal.

Germany dominated the first half but the score was 0-0 on the back of Diego Costa's brilliance for Portugal. He saved Leon Gortzka's low shot during the fourth minute and then made a brilliant comeback by saving Nick Woldtemart's close-range shot. After two minutes he once again helped Portugal by stopping Goretzka.

But Germany was leading during the 48th minute as Florian Writz made a brilliant header, which he received from Joshua Kimmich. But Portugal then made a brilliant comeback as Francisco Conceiciao scored an equalizer during the 63rd minute by playing a brilliant shot from outside the shot. It was an important match for Conceiciao as his father Sergio had scored three goals when Portugal defeated Germany the last time way back in 2000.

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After five minutes, Nuno Mendes helped Ronaldo score the winning goal as he helped him b giving a brilliant pass.

Germany did try to change the momentum as Portugal was leading on the back of Karim Adeyami's brilliant shot, which was aimed towards the post. Portugal was on the verge of scoring their third goal but Marc Ter-Stegen made a brilliant save and thus kept the score at 2-1.

Roberto Martinez, who is the coach of Portugal reckoned that it was a collective win and that they will try to perform similarly during the summit clash.

"We need to enjoy the victory – we won for the first time in a while against Germany. Tactically we were exceptional and our commitment helped... it was a team victory," Portugal coach Roberto Martinez told broadcasters during the post-match presentation.

"Now we can recover and evaluate. We want another performance with personality in this shirt" he concluded.

Portugal will either lock horns with Spain or France during the summit clash, which will be held on Sunday.