Scotland 1-3 Portugal: Key winners and losers, from Sanches to Ramos

After their Uefa Nations League embarrassment against Israel in midweek, Scotland hosted a much-changed Portugal at Hampden Park in an international friendly.

Following what was, in truth, an incredibly tepid first half, the visitors struck first through debutant Helder Costa after some good work down the Portuguese left-hand side.

Despite conceding this goal, and indeed going in 1-0 down at the break, Alex McLeish’s men looked assured in possession throughout the first half and did manage to create a few half-chances of their own.

That didn’t last, however, as the hosts dropped into a mundane, lifeless rhythm and Portugal spent the second-half simply picking off Scotland, putting another two goals past Craig Gordon to turn the game into a rout.

Here are three winners and three losers as Scotland fell to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Portugal.

Winner – Helder Costa

(Photo credit ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP/Getty Images)

After the part he has played in helping Wolves make a strong start to their first season back in the Premier League, Helder Costa was handed his senior debut for Portugal against Scotland.

The 24-year-old had a lively game, asking plenty of questions of Scotland’s left-back extraordinaire Andy Robertson and, just before half-time, got on the end of a Kevin Rodrigues cross to slot home his first-ever goal for Portugal – a much-deserved reward for an assured, exciting debut. 

Loser – Claudio Ramos

So, if Helder Costa had the perfect international debut, Claudio Ramos had anything but that.

Replacing Beto on 86 minutes, Ramos threw on his gloves and jogged to his goal with the swagger of someone who was certain they were about to round off a clean sheet.

Steven Naismith, however, had other ideas and within seven minutes of starting his international career, Tondela ‘keeper Ramos watched his first conceded goal fly past him.

Beto must be fuming.

Winner – Bruma

(Photo credit ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP/Getty Images)

OK, so Bruma did miss an absolute hat full of chances against Scotland, but my word, he is fast. On another day, the Leipzig winger could and would have grabbed himself a hat-trick but that didn’t stop him being the proverbial thorn in the side of the Scots in this meeting, eventually grabbing a much-deserved goal in the 84th minute, cutting inside and firing a thunderbolt into the back of Craig Gordon’s goal.

With Velociraptor-like pace and the bravery and willingness to commit defenders, he made Stephen O’Donnell look like a fish out of water – playing for Kilmarnock to facing Portugal really is a huge step up in class – and was involved in creating Helder Costa’s opening goal, driving inside to create space on the wing before laying it off to Kevin Rodrigues, who fired in the cross for the goal.

Loser – Stephen O’Donnell

(Photo credit ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Stephen O’Donnell has moulded himself into something of a reliable figure at right-back in recent times for Scotland. However, his performance against Portugal did anything but cover himself in glory.

The difference between playing for Kilmarnock week-in-week-out and facing a player with the quality of Bruma looked apparent and, in all honesty, O’Donnell was way out of his depth. Most of the problems that Portugal caused came down the Scottish right as the Leipzig winger gave O’Donnell the runaround all afternoon, culminating in O’Donnell, at one point, being about a million lightyears too high up the pitch. Bruma duly exploited the space and Portugal worked their opening goal.

Winner – Renato Sanches

(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The Renato Sanches revival just keeps gaining steam at the moment. Upon returning to Bayern Munich this season, the 21-year-old has finally been putting in the kind of performances that brought him to light in Euro 2016 and he continued his rise back to form against Scotland, providing an assist for Eder’s first goal since the final of that very tournament.

That assist aside, Sanches traversed the Portugal midfield with the authority of the 30-year-old and the leg of a, well, 21-year-old. In 10 years time, we may just look back at his loan spell at Swansea as the character-building experience that defined him as a player.

Loser – Bruno Fernandes

(Photo credit ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP/Getty Images)

With the eminent Bernardo Silva out of the squad to face Scotland, this was a great chance for Bruno Fernandes to show Fernando Santos what he can do and that he can challenge the City man in the creative department.

That just didn’t happen at Hampden and, despite performing superbly for Sporting CP over the past year, Fernandes put in another anonymous performance for his country. Often wasteful in possession and never really looking like he was going to make a meaningful contribution, Fernandes was subbed off after 67 minutes to be replaced by the exciting Benfica youngster, Gedson Fernandes, who helped himself to an assist.

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