Fernando Santos insists he had no problem in leaving Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench as Portugal played out an "interesting result" in their Nations League opener with Spain.
Alvaro Morata fired Spain into a 25th-minute lead with his 26th strike in all competitions for his country, becoming the joint-seventh highest scorer in La Roja's history alongside Emilio Butragueno.
Ronaldo was introduced after the hour mark but it was fellow substitute Ricardo Horta who made the difference.
Horta popped up at the back post with eight minutes remaining to coolly convert Joao Cancelo's low, whipped cross from the right flank, snatching a 1-1 draw for Portugal in Seville.
Santos, speaking after the game, was quick to defend his decision to name Ronaldo among the substitutes, while he hailed the performance of his side on the road.
"There is no management at all. Management will be done in every game. Here too. It seemed to me that this was the best solution for the start of the game," Santos told Sport TV.
"A different team [Portugal], in terms of work and positioning of field, with different things. This seemed to be a good solution and I had Cristiano whenever I needed to get him on the field.
"I already knew that. It's a normal structure."
He added to RTP3: "Thank God. I'm very happy, despite being sad about the result, I'm very happy because a Portugal draw with Spain is just an interesting result.
"Of course, it's not a good result for us, but still good for us, for the working of this group, which leads people to believe that we can do more."
Portugal host Switzerland on Sunday in their next Group A2 game, while Spain visit Czech Republic on the same day.
Tatum on White's buzzer-beater: 'That s*** was crazy!'
Boston Celtics hero Derrick White said "It just had to be won" after his buzzer-beating tip-in forced the Eastern Conference finals to Game 7, as Jayson Tatum added: "That s*** was crazy!"
From 3-0 down against the Miami Heat, the Celtics have fought back to 3-3 in the series, and are now just one win away from making history.
White grabbed and then sank the rebound from Marcus Smart's failed three-pointer with 0.1 seconds remaining to seal a 104-103 victory in Miami on Saturday.
The Celtics are now on the brink of the greatest comeback in NBA playoffs history, needing a win at home in Game 7 on Monday to become the first team to win a series after losing the first three games.
Boston are only the fourth NBA team to erase a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series to force a deciding game.
Reflecting on the game-winning moment, Tatum told reporters: "I'm still, like, in disbelief. That s*** was crazy.
"That felt like the longest 10 seconds ever waiting for confirmation if he made it or not."
White told TNT: "It had to be won. Whatever it takes, our backs against our wall, it just had to be won.
"We're a resilient group. We pick each other up, we bond for each other.
"The job isn't done yet, we've got a tough one Game 7, we've got to find a way to get one more win."
White had tears sparkling in his eyes, but explained: "I'm just happy. So far, so good."
It is just the second time in league history that a player has hit a buzzer-beater when his team was down and facing elimination, after Michael Jordan's legendary "The Shot", way back in 1989.
"Derrick White, like a flash of lightning, just came out of nowhere and saved the day, man," team-mate Jaylen Brown added. "An incredible play."
The Heat can only lick their wounds as they head to Boston for Monday's winner-takes-all matchup.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said: "It's a seven-game series. There's nothing better than Game 7s.
"I don't know how we're going to get this done, but we're going to go out there and get it done, and that's what the next 48 hours is about.
"There's been nothing easy about this season for our group, and so we just have to do it the hard way."
Jimmy Butler did his best for Miami, with 24 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
"We've got to go on the road and do something special, but we've got a special group," Butler said.
'Bunny' Shaw is Manchester City Women's Player of the Season, misses out on WSL Golden Boot
Reggae Girlz captain, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw has won the award for Manchester City Women’s Player of the Season, having come out on top in a fan vote.
Shaw, in her second season for Manchester City Women, scored 31 goals in all competitions, surpassing the record for the most goals by a Women’s player across a single season. She also claimed the WSL Player of the Month awards in November and March and received the Goal of the Season prize for her strike against Arsenal in April 2023.
Shaw, who scored twice in Manchester City Women's 3-2 win over Everton on Saturday's final day of the season, did miss out on the Women’s Super League Golden Boot having bagged 20 league goals, two shy of Aston Villa’s Rachel Daley’s 22. Daley scored in Aston Villa's 2-0 win over Arsenal.
Manchester City Women finished fourth in the WSL on 47 points behind winners Chelsea Women who amassed 58 points from their 22 games. Manchester United Women finished second with 56 points. Arsenal Women were third on 47 points, the same as Manchester City Women, who lost their first two games of the season before going on a 16-game unbeaten run.
However, the Cityzens lost three of their last six games and fell out of the running for the title. They finished with a record of 15 wins, two draws and five losses.
Ange Postecoglou knows all about the expectation at Celtic
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou believes his players have become conditioned to the constant demands for success.
Captain Callum McGregor lifted the cinch Premiership trophy on Saturday after a 5-0 win over Aberdeen rounded off a season in which Celtic collected 99 points and scored a post-war club-record 114 league goals.
Postecoglou has now claimed four of five domestic trophies available since arriving from Japan in the summer of 2021 and he can follow in the footsteps of Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill, Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon by clinching the treble with Scottish Cup victory over Inverness on Saturday.
“From the moment I arrived, I think I have said many times, coming off a trophyless season, we could not go another year without winning something,” he said.
“From the first day I arrived, irrespective of what happened at the start of the season, I made it clear to the boys that expectation is always there.
“That will never change. Whether you are winning or not winning, expectation at this football club is you have success every year.
“I think the players have become conditioned to that. They train like that every day, they behave like that. Callum is pushing them like that every day. You can’t have an off day. You can’t have an off season.”
Postecoglou is already thinking about how he can improve Celtic next season.
“You can’t stand still in this game,” he said. “It changes very quickly. It’s fine margins between having success again and not being successful.
“And more than that, this team’s going to improve. Most of the key players in this team, you can see them improving.
“All the the ones who joined last year have had better years this year than last year, and the ones who stayed, Callum and Greg Taylor and Tony Ralston, all those guys, have all come on, and had better years this year.
“That tells me there’s more improvement. There has to be.”
Aberdeen manager Barry Robson will try to make sure his side compete better with Celtic next season but he sensed Saturday’s game would be difficult given the occasion and the fact his side had achieved their goal of finishing third in the league three days earlier.
Robson, whose side will be guaranteed European group stage football if Celtic win the cup, said: “We’re going to try our best in every department and be as good as we can possibly be.
“We know the differences in finance between teams in the league.
“I’ve played for teams challenging the Old Firm and I’ve played for the Old Firm myself, so I know how difficult it is.
“But we need to be as good an Aberdeen team as we can be, which we’ve done, and also perform well in Europe.
“We need Celtic to do us a turn at Hampden next week.
“That wasn’t our fight. Our fight was getting to third. But we want to make it a fight.”
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