Lithuania 1-5 Portugal: 4 players who impressed | EURO 2020 Qualifiers

#3 Rafael Silva

Rafa Silva helped change the dynamics of the game

The second Silva to appear on this list started the game from the bench but made an almost immediate impact upon his introduction.

Though the 5-1 scoreline might indicate that Portugal controlled the game from start to finish, that was not the case, Lithuania actually kept their more illustrious visitors at bay for much of the first half.

Despite controlling most of the possession, Portugal found the Lithuanian backline a tough nut to crack and were largely stopped from creating tangible chances in the first 45 minutes.

Given Portugal's toothlessness in attack, it came as no surprise when Fernando Santos elected to shake things up in the middle, and he did this by taking off the highly sought after Benfica man Bruno Fernandez and replaced him with his Lisbon-based club rival Rafa Silva.

This tactical twitch proved to be a stroke of genius, as the 26-year-old helped Portugal provide the incisiveness which had been lacking prior to his arrival.

Just five minutes after stepping onto the pitch, he set Ronaldo to put Portugal ahead once again, and even though his teammate's goal had a lot to do with the poor goalkeeping of Ernestas Šetkus, it takes nothing away from Rafa Silva's impressive 35-minute cameo in the game.