"At no point did we think we were going to lose"

Portugal's third trophy, their second in the Nations League, and the first for many players. Portugal beat Spain on penalties and celebrated in Munich, joining the thousands of fans who filled part of the Allianz Arena and celebrating on the pitch, where Diogo Dalot was the master of ceremonies, Cristiano Ronaldo cried and Nuno Mendes was lifted up into the heavens.

With this triumph, Portugal is now the only team to have won the Nations League twice and, together with the European Championship won in 2016, it is also the country with the most titles — behind only Germany, France, Italy and Spain. After the game and the celebrations on the pitch, Vitinha was one of the first players to appear before the media.

Diogo's hands held Martínez's star (the Portugal-Spain chronicle)

“It was a dream week. I think I’ll remember it for the rest of my life… I won three games in a row in this stadium and two trophies. Fortunately, today we managed to win this Nations League and give it to the Portuguese. It was very difficult, Spain steals the ball from us, forces us to run, it’s very complicated. We had to work hard to win this trophy. It’s the realisation of an ambition we had. We’ve never hidden the fact that we really wanted to win the Nations League, we’re the only country with two Nations Leagues and that’s a source of great pride. The Ballon d’Or? I certainly don’t think about that. I leave that to the other people. What I want is to win collective trophies”, said the PSG midfielder, who started in the final after starting on the bench against Germany.

Diogo Costa, who saved a penalty from Álvaro Morata and was decisive, was naturally pleased. “Thank God, it worked. I was able to help the team and that was always my thought. We deserved it, given the quality we have in our national team. Now it’s time to enjoy it and hope all this motivates us for the future”, began the FC Porto goalkeeper, before commenting on the fact that he is a specialist in penalties.

“We have to change our strategy a little, try to be a little unpredictable. Try to play a psychological game and change my way of reading the opponent,” he said. “It’s clear that we have quality. As the game went on, we were able to adapt very well and turn things around. That’s the way forward. I prefer to start and finish well. Club World Cup? Now it’s time to celebrate with our national team and then help my club,” he said.

The players who were involved in the 2 titles of ???????? Portugal in the Nations League:Nélson SemedoRúben DiasBruno FernandesBernardo SilvaRúben NevesCristiano RonaldoJosé Sá

Diogo Jota pic.twitter.com/pEpfFnLCdU

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Bruno Fernandes, one of the eight Portuguese players who also won the Nations League in 2019, recalled that “it’s always special to win for Portugal”. “It has a different flavour. It was obviously a difficult season for me at club level, but winning for our country and our family is spectacular. We had to be quick to react to losing the ball and we can still do better with the ball, but we showed what we can do”, he said.

“At no point did we think we were going to lose the game, even though we were behind. There are no words to describe Nuno Mendes, he was the ‘best’ player for us. When we have players who make this difference, we believe we can win. At the club I also play for the family, but here we all suffer more. That’s what we miss most when we play away and it’s beautiful to see the bonds that are created. The World Cup? The ambition for all of us is to win another competition and we have qualification ahead of us. We want to make the Portuguese proud of us”, added the Manchester United midfielder.

Number of European national team titles:8 Germany????8 France????6 Italy6 Spain3 Portugal⬆2 Denmark1 Greece1 England1 Czechoslovakia1 Netherlands

1 USSR pic.twitter.com/HJKH0zOOrA

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Rodrigo Mora, who was called up to the National Team for the first time but ended up not making his debut, acknowledged that “everything happened very quickly”. “I’m very happy to be here with this group. The most important thing was to learn from these players, the group welcomed me very well and I learned a lot. I knew I had the quality to get there, but everything happened faster than with most young players. I’m glad it happened, I’m really enjoying it. We have the Club World Cup and now I just want to celebrate”, said the young FC Porto forward.

Finally, Bernardo Silva also had some words to say about Sunday’s victory. “It was a difficult game, as we expected. Our resilience, our work, and our belief until the end made the difference. In the penalty shootout, we got what we wanted, which was the Nations League. I’m very proud, it’s another title. We all wanted to win this. In the dressing room, we talked about how aggressive we needed to be to win our duels, which was crucial given Spain’s immense quality. This effort to achieve this great goal makes us very proud,” he said, also expressing his condolences to the family of the fan who died during the game after falling from the third to the second floor of the Allianz Arena.

In 8 days, Nuno Mendes, João Neves, Vitinha and Gonçalo Ramos won the Champions League and the Nations League in the same stadium – Allianz Arena, in ???????? Munich pic.twitter.com/RTHSpeFkup

— Playmaker (@playmaker_PT) June 8, 2025