Coach Roberto Martinez named Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench and retained Vitinha, Ruben Dias, Joao Palhinha from the win over Finland, as Dominik Livakovic, Mateo Kovacic and Andrej Kramaric were the sole survivors from Croatia’s victory over North Macedonia. It was the perfect start on eight minutes for the visiting team when star player Luka Modric fired into the bottom corner from the penalty spot after Mateo Kovacic drew a foul from Vitinha. Modric should’ve added a second goal in quick succession through a snap volley after meeting a loose ball right outside the box but in the end slammed wide of the bottom-corner.
Josko Gvardiol looked to double the visitors lead around the final stages of the half when he nodded over at the back-post following a floated delivery. Croatia fashioned more chances five minutes before halftime and saw Kramaric’s side-foot effort drew a point-blank save from Diogo Costa, with the host pretty on the ropes. No fewer than four substitutions before the second half were made by the host, as Joao Cancelo, Nelson Semedo, Raphael Leao and Diogo Jota stepped on.
A Selecao pulled level just after the break when Semedo broke free down the right and crossed for Jota to tap into a gaping net. However, the Vatreni regained advantage as Ante Budimir headed in from close-range as the initial effort from Mario Pasalic had come back off the woodwork. Portugal came quite close to restoring parity and a miraculous save from Livakovic coupled with last-dit.