Wolves ace Neves played almost the whole match as Portugal drew with Croatia.
Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Ruben Neves played 86 minutes of Portugal’s draw against World Cup finalists Croatia on Thursday night – and some Portugal fans reacted to his midfield display.
Neves, 21, earned just his sixth cap for Portugal by starting at the base of Portugal’s midfield as they came up against a difficult test in the form of Croatia.
Indeed, it was Neves who lost the ball midway inside his own half before Croatia capitalised and found the back of the net through Ivan Perisic in the 18th minute, after nice work from their attackers.
However, Pepe equalised just 14 minutes later for Portugal with an excellent header from a short corner, scoring his seventh Portugal goal on his 100th cap for his country.
Neves did make up for his earlier mistake with an excellent performance in the middle of the park, but his efforts were somewhat overshadowed by his first-half mistake, which will surely come as a learning curve for the youngster.
Some Portugal fans reacted on Twitter to Neves’ performance, with some applauding his efforts in the midfield: “So young, yet so mature”, while others were not impressed by the former FC Porto star: “not good enough yet”.
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