Following the World Cup, Portugal was part of the inaugural UEFA Nations League, were the "Seleção" were placed in league A and were drawn into Group 3 with Italy and Poland. On 9 March 2018, UEFA announced that Portugal had expressed interest in bidding for the Nations League finals, which was later announced that the group winners would be appointed as the host. Portugal started the league defeating Italy in a home 1–0 victory, with André Silva scoring the match's only goal. In their second match, Portugal defeated Poland in a 3–2 away victory. In the two remaining matches, Portugal faced Italy and Poland in a 0–0 away draw and Poland 1–1 home, respectively, to advance to the Nations League finals, thereby automatically winning hosting rights, which were confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee on 3 December 2018. In the semi-finals on 5 June 2019, Cristiano Ronaldo made his return to the team scoring a hat-trick against Switzerland to secure the host a spot in the final. Four days later, in the finals at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto, Portugal defeated the Netherlands 1–0, with the only being scored by Gonçalo Guedes in the 60th minute.