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Sweden had a chance to take the lead after two minutes when Emil Krafth’s pole found Marcus Berg’s head. The nod was right outside Anthony Lope’s booth.
After that, Portugal had more good scoring chances, but Robin Olsen saved, among other things, Cristiano Ronaldo’s attempt to break the Swedish zero.
Sweden did quite well in the match at the National Arena, but then came the nightmare minute just before half-time.
Second player to reach 100 goals
Midfielder Gustav Svensson received his second yellow card when he was late with a tackle on Joao Moutinho. The free kick that followed put Ronaldo behind Olsen and was the Portuguese star’s 100th goal in the national team jersey.
He will be the second player in history to reach 100 goals for national teams. Iranian Ali Daei has the most with 109.
Svensson’s red card is the first for the national team since Andreas Granqvist was sent off against Moldova in March 2015.
– I haven’t talked to Gustav yet. I patted him at the break. She was the saddest person in this field. The first yellow card seemed cheap enough, but the second is clearer. That set the game up. Until then, it’s a pretty close match, says national team captain Janne Andersson in the subsequent press conference.
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Two defeats in a row
With one man down, Sweden didn’t have much to follow on the offensive track and a quarter of the second half, Bruno Fernande hit the crossbar.
But it wasn’t the Manchester United player who extended Portugal’s lead, it was Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese got the ball out of the penalty area and lifted it over Olsen in an extremely graceful manner. The goal was the superstar’s seventh in four games against Sweden.
– It’s amazing actually. Today he scores two fantastic goals. With such a player, he can explode at any moment and we saw that today, says Alexander Isak.
– It is not fun to lose football games and Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best players in the world. His performance determines this match, says Janne Andersson.
At the end of the match, Portugal came close to making it 3-0, but Joao Félix missed the ball.
Sweden has started their group in Division A of the Nations League with two defeats in a row, without scoring a goal. There are four games left, two against Croatia, one against France and one against Portugal.
The team that finishes last in the group is relegated to division b.
