Gary Neville says Spain’s performance against Portugal in their opening World Cup game was the best of the tournament so far. Despite losing their manager Julen Lopetegui on the eve of the tournament, Spain twice came from behind to lead Portugal 3-2 before a Cristiano Ronaldo free-kick denied them with just minutes remaining. Neville says mistakes marred Spain’s opener, but it was a better performance than perhaps they’ve been given credit for.
“Spain look strong to me. I think when you look at that Spain first game against Portugal, it was maybe a lot better performance than we realised at the time because of say, for instance, David de Gea’s mistake that you wouldn’t expect him to make too many times, Nacho’s foul on Ronaldo in the first five minutes, and even [Gerard] Pique’s free kick against Ronaldo on the edge of the box.”He said.