Félix scores for Portugal; Petrović keeps clean sheet for Serbia

11/19/2024 01:44 AM

Monday's internationals

Portugal released Pedro Neto back to Chelsea over the weekend but held on to João Félix and Renato Veiga, who thus both started against Croatia last night, with the two sides settling for a 1-1 draw in what was ultimately a meaningless Nations League encounter as both teams had their final positions already locked in.

Head coach Roberto Martínez promised experimentation, and that's precisely what he did, with Veiga once again deployed in central defense but this time starting in the center of a back-three, flanked by debutant Tomás Araújo and left back Nuno Mendes — who were then in turn replaced by another debutant and another full back in the second half. Not bad to give up just the one goal after all that!

At the other end, Félix got on the scoresheet for his first national team goal since the summer, timing his run precisely to get on the end of a ball over the top from deep, and finishing precisely into the bottom far corner. Lovely goal all around.

Meanwhile, fellow Iberians, Spain made it 16 matches unbeaten in a row with a 3-2 win over Switzerland, who made a game of it in the second half but ultimately succumbed to the defending European champions.

Marc Cucurella thankfully got the night off with Spain's Nations League group long decided; in fact, they swapped goalkeepers at the half just for funsies, with Robert Sánchez thus getting to make his third international appearance.

And speaking of Chelsea goalkeepers, my man Đorđe Petrović kept a clean sheet against Denmark in a scoreless draw for Serbia, taking full advantage of being elevated to first-choice for this break due to injuries to both Predrag Rajković and Vanja Milinković-Savić. Here's one nice save from the game:

And here's one even better than that, from the first game of the break, a 1-1 draw against Switzerland on Friday.

DJ recently talked again about being happy with his choice to go on loan to Strasbourg and thus improve his game there, so there's still time for all y'all to get on the Đorđe/Gaga goalkeeping ticket for 2025 and beyond.