MUNICH: Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winner as Portugal fought back to beat Germany 2-1 on Wednesday, with the 40-year-old bagging his record-extending 137th international goal to send them into the Nations League final and breaking his run of bad fortune against the Germans.

It was Portugal’s first win over Germany since 2000 with Ronaldo’s 68th-minute tap in earning them a spot in their second Nations League final, after winning the inaugural edition in 2019, where they will face either European champions Spain or France on Sunday.

After a stuttering first half, Florian Wirtz produced a moment of magic to give Germany the lead three minutes after halftime, starting and finishing a clever burst through the middle and heading in the opener.

However, Portugal turned the match around, first equalising through substitute Francisco Conceicao’s brilliant solo goal in the 63rd minute, before Ronaldo landed the telling blow after Nuno Mendes teed him up.

For Conceicao, the win carried extra significance, as his father Sergio scored a hat-trick the last time Portugal beat Germany — at the European Championship in 2000.

“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 said. “Now we can recover and evaluate,” he added. “We want another performance with personality in this shirt.”

Portugal midfielder Bernardo Silva celebrated Ronaldo’s relentless desire to play and win. “It’s never easy — I don’t know how old he is, I think he’s like 40 — to still be hungry to go on every day,” said Silva. “We’re very happy to have him with us.”

The loss is a setback for Julian Nagelsmann’s Germany, who had lost just one of their previous 17 games. “It was a deserved defeat,” Nagelsmann told DAZN. “We gave the game away in the first half. Defensively we lacked the ruthlessness that we’ve had in recent games.”

Portugal had four players backing up from winning Saturday’s Champions League final — and the ensuing celebrations — but it was Germany who struggled to find rhythm early.

The match started 10 minutes late due to a violent storm which left hailstones scattered across the turf.

Aleksandar Pavlovic mislaid several passes while Portugal’s app­r­oach of pressing Jonathan Tah almost paid dividends, with the defender insecure in possession.

Portugal shotstopper Diogo Costa made an excellent start to the first half, keeping out a low shot from Germany’s Leon Goretzka after four minutes with a strong save.

Ronaldo, greeted by Portuguese cheers and German boos every time he came near the ball, almost scored the opener six minutes in, but his shot was claimed by old La Liga sparring partner Marc-Andre ter Stegen, playing his first match for Germany since September 2024.

Costa came to Portugal’s rescue again with an incredible save from Nick Woltemade’s close-range effort and two minutes later, he produced another quick reaction stop, diving low to tip away another attempt from Goretzka.

Ronaldo was inches away from giving Portugal the lead when the visitors broke immediately after halftime, but he was unable to get enough of his boot on a clever Nuno Mendes cross with an open goal beckoning.

Germany took less than a minute to punish the miss. Wirtz tiptoed down the left side, attracting three defenders before laying off for Joshua Kimmich. The German captain chipped it over the Port­ugal defence and back to Wirtz, who expertly guided a low header into the bottom right corner.

Both sides made three changes on the 60-minute mark but it was Martinez whose substitutions had the telling impact.

Five minutes after coming on, Conceicao shed Robin Gosens with a shimmy near the half-way line and advanced goalwards before unleashing a superb curling shot past the desperate fingers of Ter Stegen.

Ronaldo then put Portugal in front, nervelessly tapping in a Mendes pass to make up for his previous misses.

Germany looked to shift the momentum when substitute Karim Adeyemi unleashed a powerful rising strike with his left foot, only to see it crash against the outside of Costa’s right-hand post.

Portugal could have grabbed a third goal very late in the match but Germany keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen stretched impressively to perform a double save.

“It could have been more,” Mendes said.

It was a disappointing 100th appearance for Germany captain Kimmich.

“The defeat is absolutely deserved. We weren’t playing well enough in the first half. After going 1-0 up, nothing came of it in the second half,” he told reporters. “We have to learn from this. If we’re not at 100%, we can’t beat a top European team. Today was one of our worst games, purely based on our performance.”

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2025