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Cristiano Ronaldo was missing between the rivals, but Sweden went to Lisbon with a tough task ahead.
Away against Portugal, Sweden maintained a steady pace early in the first half and Mikael Lustig fired into a great position from close range in the 13th minute.
Portugal then took the lead in the 13th minute. The home team won the ball in the offensive half and a few passes later Bernardo Silva was free to make it 1-0.
Sweden continued to create chances, but neither Marcus Berg’s left-hander nor Dejan Kulusevski’s foray into the offensive penalty area led to a draw in the first half.
Sweden lost big to Portugal
Instead, it was Liverpool’s newest acquisition Diogo Jota who found the net late in the half when both the Swedish players and the leaders called offside.
When Sweden pressed for a reduction goal, Jota closed the game definitively with his 3-0 goal. The outside midfielder was responsible for a solo foray where neither Mattias Johansson, Pontus Jansson or Victor Nilsson Lindelöf managed to stop the shot that made Portugal win 3-0.
– The biggest problem is that they have to run against us with four, five players in almost all the counterattacks. Then the very good players will turn right towards our baseline. We have to go through this and learn. I do not know what it is. We keep the ball well, but sometimes we get a little too naive and don’t keep the counter mark, says Nilsson Lindelöf and continues:
– It was a difficult match. If you, as a midfielder, concede three goals, it’s not a pleasant match to play.
How do you see your collaboration and that of Pontus Jansson?
– It’s one thing we have to look at. When we lie and defend with eleven players, it feels calm, so don’t believe much. They let us have the ball and bring the ball up and in our last third they win the ball and quickly counterattack. We can see how we can do better collectively, it’s not just about us, the players.
Andersson: “There was a vulnerability”
Federation Captain Janne Andersson:
– We want to be an offensive team that plays beautiful football. We have been a hard-working team, very united and compact. If we begin to bloom and lose compactness, we become vulnerable. Today there was a vulnerability and it is probably a learning experience.
The result means that Sweden remains at zero points after four games in the Nations League, while Portugal shares the leadership in the group with France with ten points.
– I’m happy with my performance, now I know that the most important thing was to win. We had good moments in the match and in the end we had a difficult result to achieve against Sweden. It’s a very good night, says Portugal’s two-goal shooter Diogo Jota after the match.
– Sweden deserves praise because we had to work hard for a while. It was difficult. In the second half, we managed to regain control and free ourselves before the Swedes approached us, says the captain of the Portugal team, Fernando Santos.
Then a fateful match against Croatia waits exactly one month for Sweden. Croatia has three points after four games and therefore Sweden must win to avoid relegation to Group B of the Nations League.
In that match, Sweden will have to dispense with the captain of the national team, Janne Andersson, who received a yellow card on the bench and is now suspended against Croatia.
