João Neves on his hat-trick: Ex-Benfica star recalls Eusébio and... | OneFootball

Portugal defeated Armenia 9-1 and secured direct qualification for the 2026 World Cup. João Neves scored his first goals for the National Team and netted a hat-trick. At the end of the match, the former Benfica player expressed his happiness and remembered Eusébio.

"It was a special game. Because of what the match represented, wearing Eusébio’s jersey, and then my first goals, my first hat-trick, for the National Team. It’s always memorable. We played a great game and the goals came as a result of what we built. We’ve had several games where we had chances to score this many goals, but didn’t. This is the consequence of what we do in training and what we did in this match," he told SportTV.

Asked about the intensity he showed in the match, even in the final minutes, the former Benfica player admitted: "I always play the same way. From start to finish. We don’t care about the score, but about how we play. We worked very well and put into practice perfectly what we’ve been training."

One of the goals was from a direct free kick, but João Neves revealed that he hasn’t moved up in the hierarchy of Portugal’s official set-piece takers: "No. For the second free kick, it wasn’t me who took it. It’s whoever feels more confident. We have players with great ability to do it. I’m just one more."

This season, playing for PSG, João Neves – valued at 90 million euros – has played eight matches: six in Ligue 1 and two in the Champions League.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.