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#3 Portugal's resolute defence
After taking the lead early on in the second half, Portugal decided to drop back and defend their advantage. This resulted in Italy having a higher share of possession but the Portuguese defence were ready for the task ahead and successfully kept a clean sheet in their opening game.
The backline comprised of Pepe, Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo and Napoli's Mario Rui. All four of them made it extremely hard for the Italians to penetrate through into the box and did not allow for any kind of opening.
The centre-back pairing of Pepe and Dias combined for nine clearances whereas Cancelo led the charge with four successful tackles. On the other hand, Mario Rui was wild with his challenges and committed four fouls and surprisingly was not booked by the referee for any of his careless errors.
Meanwhile, the likes of Ruben Neves and Bernardo Silva also chipped in with some additional defensive work towards the latter stages and contributed with a couple of neat tackles to prevent and disrupt the surge from Italy late on.
A total team effort by the entire Portugal lineup meant that Rui Patricio was provided adequate protection and barely troubled, forced to make only a couple of routine saves on the night as the 30 year old goalkeeper kicked off the UEFA Nations League campaign with a clean sheet.
