Internationals | Jota scores first senior Portugal goal

6th September 2020

Diogo Jota scored his first senior goal on Saturday evening as Portugal secured a comfortable 4-1 victory over World Cup semi-finalists Croatia in their first Nations League group game.

Playing on the left of a front three, Jota, who had earlier struck the post, scored in typical fashion – taking a long ball over his shoulder before racing through the defence before guiding the ball into the bottom corner – to put Portugal 2-0 up on the evening.

Wolves teammate Joao Moutinho was Portugal captain on the evening, as his side got off to the best of starts in their hunt to retain the Nations League title they won last summer.

Rui Patricio and Ruben Neves were unused substitutes against Croatia, and will be hoping to get minutes in Portugal’s next group stage match against Sweden on Tuesday night.

The only other Wolves star to have featured in the first of the two international fixtures for their countries this week was Pedro Neto.

The forward played the first hour of Portugal under-21’s 4-0 win over Cyprus as they moved second in their European qualifying group.

Ruben Vinagre was on the bench for the match, but the wing-back could feature when the young Portuguese side play their second qualifier of the week against Belarus on Tuesday.

⚽️ | GOLOOOOO!!!! DIOGO JOTA FAZ O 2-0!!!#PORxCRO | 2-0 | #UNL #VamosTodos #VamosComTudo pic.twitter.com/SQlPucB6mY
— Portugal (@selecaoportugal) September 5, 2020

Elsewhere, Conor Coady will have to wait until Tuesday for the chance to make his senior debut for England.

Coady was an unused substitute for the Three Lions as they had to rely on an injury time penalty to overcome Iceland in Reykjavik. The defender will hope to make his long-awaited debut against Denmark in another Nations League fixture on Tuesday night.

Having missed Spain’s 1-1 Nations League draw with Germany earlier this week due to testing positive for Covid-19, Adama Traore was hoping to rejoin his national squad for Sunday evening’s clash away in Ukraine.

However, even though he has since returned negative tests, the Spanish national team confirmed the flying winger is unable to attend this evening's match due to UEFA protocol, so will face another wait to make his first senior international start.

The ninth Wolves player on international duty this week is Leander Dendoncker and the midfielder remained on the bench for Belgium’s 2-0 Nations League over Denmark.

In the same group as England, Belgium are facing the same opposition this week, and Dendoncker will be aiming to make the line-up for Tuesday’s game against Iceland.

Wolves internationals September fixtures and results

Patricio, Moutinho, Neves, Jota (Portugal): UEFA Nations League group stages