Ruben Neves was back in the Portuguese national team on Friday night, his first appearance since 2015.
Despite playing in the Championship, Neves was given a starting role for Portugal and that somewhat underlines just how well he’s done at Wolves.
The 21 year old’s career stuttered at Porto but he’s kickstarted things under the same manager Nuno Espirito Santo. From tears on Porto’s bench after being snubbed by Nuno to leading the Wolves team to the Premier League, Neves has had a really positive turnaround.
But he sounds disappointed with his performance against Egypt. Two injury time Cristiano Ronaldo goals turned what would have been a 1-0 loss into a 2-1 win, and Neves is quoted by Record as saying: “Any player who is part of this group works to help. That’s what I did, I gave my best. I was not always good, I could have done a little better. I missed some passes, but I tried to help in the best way.
“We knew it was going to be difficult, because Egypt has an excellent team and is also in the World Cup. We started well and controlled the game, not giving them many chances in the first half. In the second half we came back well, but they reached the goal through a counterattack. However, when you have the best in the world these things can happen. Fortunately, that’s what happened.”
Neves will find it incredibly hard to be a regular starter for Portugal, with William Carvalho and Danilo Pereira ahead of him. Promotion with Wolves and top Premier League performances would obviously help, but the World Cup has come too early for that.
