Sports

Portugal hold Italy; clinch finals spot

Published

8 years ago

November 19, 2018

Editor

Portugal made sure of a place in the Nations League Finals as they scraped a fortuitous 0-0 draw away to a dominant Italy on Saturday.

National Daily learnt that Fernando Santos’ side were outplayed throughout at San Siro, but the hosts wasted some presentable openings and were unable to make the most of their superiority, allowing Portugal to claim the point they needed to top League A Group 3.

Italy looked infinitely better than their visitors in the first half, with Marco Verratti and Jorginho in complete control, but the lead eluded them as Ciro Immobile spurned a couple of excellent opportunities.

While the pattern of the match remained much the same after the interval, the chances dried up for Italy and ultimately Portugal managed to cling on to the draw they needed, rendering their final fixture with Poland an irrelevance.