Ruben Neves scored the decisive spot kick after Alvaro Morata missed as Portugal beat Spain 5-3 on penalties following a 2-2 draw in Munich on Sunday to claim their second Nations League title.

Portugal twice went behind in regulation time but twice fought back to level the scores.

Martin Zubimendi took advantage of some sleepy Portugal defence to put Spain in front after  21 minutes.

The brilliant Nuno Mendes levelled things up five minutes later.

Mikel Oyarzabal, Spain’s goalscorer in the Euro 2024 final and the 2023 Nations League final, put La Roja back in front just before the break.

Cristiano Ronaldo, quiet as he had been before scoring the winner against Germany in the semis, equalised with 61 minutes gone, adjusting quickly after a Mendes cross was deflected into the air, muscling past Marc Cucurella and volleying the dropping ball home.

Ronaldo was subbed off before full-time with cramp. Even though Portugal had the better of extra time, the match went to penalties.

Both sides converted their first three spot kicks. Mendes buried Portugal’s fourth, before Morata stepped up and shot straight at Diogo Costa.

Neves nervelessly converted in front of the red and green of the Portugal fans. The victory was just Portugal’s second competitive win over Iberian rival Spain in their long history.

Portugal’s only other win over Spain in a competitive fixture was a 1-0 victory which booted the Spaniards out of Euro 2004, with a 19-year-old Ronaldo on the left wing.

Portugal became the first two-time winner of the Nations League, launched in 2018. It was Portugal’s third major title, along with Euro 2016.

While Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal’s fluid movement troubled the Portugese defence early in the match, La Roja’s opener was scrappy.

Yamal chipped from outside the box and the Portugal defence froze, botching a clearance which fell to Zubimendi, who leathered the ball into the net.

The goal was just rewards for Spain’s early dominance, but Portugal hit back almost immediately.

Mendes, put through by Pedro Neto, drilled a low shot across the goal and in.

Just before halftime, Spain picked Portugal’s pocket in their own half before advancing. Pedri linked with Oyarzabal, who threaded the ball past Diogo Costa.

Oyarzabal’s goal meant he has scored in three international finals  — against England at Euro 2024, which Spain won, and the 2023 and 2025 Nations Leagues, which Spain lost.

Ronaldo had done little other than encourage the heavily Portuguese crowd until that point but would pick his moment to strike.

With 61 minutes gone, Mendes shed a defender and whipped in a cross. The ball took a deflection and Ronaldo outmuscled Cucurella before lashing a volley home.

The goal was Ronaldo’s fourth in 10 matches against Spain. The previous three all coming in a wild 3-3 draw at the 2018 World Cup.

Limping in the dying stages of regulation time, Ronaldo fell to the turf with three minutes left and signalled to the bench that his night was over.

Spain may have been confident when the match went to extra time, having won on penalties in 2023, but Portugal were faultless, Neves stepping up and converting to send his teammates, including a hobbled Ronaldo, streaming onto the pitch.

AFP

Nigerian sprint star, Favour Ofili, made history on Saturday by breaking the world record in the women’s 150 metres at the 2025 Adidas Atlanta City Games, clocking an astonishing 15.85 seconds (2.0m/s) at Piedmont Park.

At just 22 years old, Ofili became the first woman to ever run the 150m in under 16 seconds, smashing the previous record of 16.23 seconds set by Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas in 2018.

Her performance headlined a strong Nigerian showing at the prestigious street meet, which brought together elite global athletes in a vibrant, open-air setting designed to engage fans up close.

Reacting to her historic moment, she wrote on X: “For the lord is Good.”

Also shining on the day was world record holder and 100m hurdles champion Tobi Amusan, who finished second in her heat with a time of 12.53 seconds behind American Keni Harrison (12.44s), securing a place in the final. Amusan’s run continues her steady build-up for the upcoming championship season, having already posted 12.74s and 12.66s in previous meets in Xiamen and Keqiao.

Meanwhile, Nigerian sprinter Udodi Onwuzurike clocked a season’s best of 10.20 seconds in his 100m heat, finishing second to South Africa’s Akani Simbine (10.13s). The performance was enough to book Onwuzurike a spot in the final, signalling a strong resurgence in his 2025 campaign.

Arsenal stormed to a stunning 3-0 win over Champions League holders Real Madrid as Declan Rice’s free-kick masterclass left the Gunners within touching distance of a place in the semi-finals.

Rice scored two majestic free kicks in the second half of the quarter-final first leg at the Emirates Stadium.

Mikel Merino added Arsenal’s third goal before Real’s Eduardo Camavinga was sent off for kicking the ball away in the closing minutes to leave the Spanish giants in disarray.

The brilliance of Rice’s brace cannot be understated, with even Real keeper Thibaut Courtois — usually so inspired on Champions League nights — unable to get anywhere near the England mid-fielder’s thunderbolts.

Incredibly, Rice had never scored a free-kick in his career before the first of his missiles hit the back of the Real net.

It was no more than Arsenal deserved for a mature performance that exposed injury-hit Real in ruthless style.

Mikel Arteta’s men will travel to the Bernabeu for the second leg on April 16 as firm favourites to advance to a semi-final tie against Paris Saint-Germain or Aston Villa, who meet in their quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.

The Gunners have not reached the Champions League semi-finals since 2009, but that target is now within their grasp after an evening that will go down as one of the most memorable in the club’s storied history.

Arteta had labelled the clash with Real as the “biggest night” of his career as he urged his players to write their own history by winning Arsenal’s first Champions League crown.

They rose to the challenge so successfully that even Arteta might have been surprised.

Arsenal trail Premier League leaders Liverpool by 11 points and look destined to finish as runners-up for a third successive season.

But the Champions League now offers Arteta genuine hope of a first major trophy since the 2020 FA Cup, providing they can finish the job in Madrid next week.

Beaten by Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals last season, Arsenal’s only Champions League final appearance ended in defeat against Barcelona in 2006 — a run that included a last 16 victory over Real.

For Real, it was a chastening defeat as the 15-time European champions were punished for the flaws that had already seen them beaten 10 times in all competitions this term as they lag four points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona.

Jude Bellingham was largely anonymous and Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior posed only sporadic threats after a promising start.

Vinicius Junior threatened in the opening stages, curling wide after Mbappe picked him out inside the Arsenal area.

Mbappe’s electric pace took him clear of the Arsenal defence in another lightning raid, but the France star shot straight at David Raya.

Arsenal showed no signs of being cowed by Real’s star-studded attack and Rice’s towering header from Jurrien Timber’s cross forced a fine save from Thibaut Courtois, who scrambed across to keep out Gabriel Martinelli’s effort from the rebound.

Mbappe lashed into the side-netting from an acute angle, but Real were unable to match Arsenal’s intensity in the second half and the Gunners deservedly took the lead in the 58th minute.

Rice stepped up 25 yards from goal and whipped a sublime free-kick around the Real wall and into the far corner.

It was a stunning strike that even former Real defender and set-piece maestro Roberto Carlos, watching from the Emirates stands, would have been proud of.

Arsenal almost struck again in a remarkable sequence that saw Courtois save Martinelli’s blast before Merino’s shot from the rebound was hacked off the line by David Alaba and Courtois again denied Merino.

Real were on the ropes and Rice landed another devastating blow in the 70th minute, lashing an unstoppable free-kick into the top corner from 20 yards as Courtois grasped at thin air.

As the ecstatic Arsenal fans roared “Declan Rice, we got him half praise”, that reference to his £105 million fee didn’t seem like hyperbole for once.

Arsenal weren’t finished yet and Merino put Arsenal in dreamland five minutes later with a clinical finish from 12 yards as the Emirates turned into a roiling red sea of celebration.

AFP