Spain beat Croatia on penalties to claim the UEFA Nations League trophy

Unai Simon was the hero as Spain beat Croatia on penalties to win the UEFA Nations League in Rotterdam on Sunday. 

After a goalless 120 minutes, the Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper saved two stop kicks to tee up Dani Carvajal to stroke home the winner. 

It represents Spain's first trophy in a decade and comes in just Luis de la Fuente's fourth game as coach. 

De la Fuente, who replaced Luis Enrique after the World Cup, was in the spotlight before this week's tournament after defeat to Scotland in qualifying for Euro 2024. 

However, after wins against Italy and now Croatia, Spain have their hands on the Nations League for the first time after losing in the final last time out to France. 

Croatia had the better of the 90 minutes but Spain came on strong late on, Barcelona forward Ansu Fati having a late shot cleared off the line. 

La Roja remained on top in extra time but could not find a way past Croatia, who eliminated hosts Netherlands in the other semifinal, and the match went to penalties. 

After six converted penalties, Simon saved brilliantly from Lovro Majer, which set up Aymeric Laporte to score the winner after Marco Asensio and Ivan Perisic had neeted. 

The Manchester City defender smashed the bar but his despair was short-lived as Simon produced another fine stop from Bruno Petkovic's penalty. 

That set up Carvajal and the Real Madrid defender made no mistake to spark wile Spain celebrations at De Kuip and a long-awaited piece of silverware for the national team.