Cristiano Ronaldo marked his 200th worldwide appearance with the champion as Portugal beat Iceland 1-0 in Euro 2024 qualifying on Tuesday, while Erling Haaland got two times for Norway.
Somewhere else, Belgium ignored the Thibaut Courtois captaincy line by seeing off Estonia because of a Romelu Lukaku double in Tallinn, and Moldova came from two objectives down to paralyze Poland.
Portugal gave off the impression of being going towards a dull, goalless draw in Reykjavik until Willum Thor Willumsson was shipped off late on.
Ronaldo battled for a significant part of the match, but he reimbursed mentor Roberto Martinez’s confidence by opening home from Goncalo Inacio’s wreck in the 89th minute.
“It was a pleasant experience (for Ronaldo). There was an unbelievable festival; I was the very first men’s player in world football to get 200 global games,” Martinez told UEFA.com.
The previous Genuine Madrid and Manchester United star’s record-expanding 123rd worldwide objective was at first precluded for offside prior to being granted by VAR.
“For me, it’s an unimaginable accomplishment; it’s astonishing,” said the 38-year-old Ronaldo. “Also, obviously, to score the triumphant objective, it’s considerably more extraordinary.”
Portugal stays two points clear of Slovakia at the highest point of Gathering J after a fourth consecutive win.
Slovakia, who are Portugal’s next rivals in September, won 1-0 away to Liechtenstein to remain unbeaten.
Luxembourg gave their far-fetched bid to arrive at a significant female competition a lift with a splendid 2-0 away triumph over Bosnia and Herzegovina to move third, only three points behind Slovakia.
The top two from each gathering qualify consequently for the following year’s finals in Germany.
Skipper Lukaku stars
Belgium goalkeeper Courtois had said he was “shocked” that mentor Domenico Tedesco told a public interview he wouldn’t make a trip to Estonia subsequent to being disregarded for the substitute captaincy last week.
Tedesco had needed to hand Lukaku the armband for Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Austria and offer Courtois the distinction in Tallinn, with normal skipper Kevin De Bruyne missing.
Be that as it may, with Courtois rather back home, Lukaku was named captain once more and answered by scoring two objectives in a 3-0 achievement, which assisted Belgium in remaining second in Gathering F.
Austria stayed three goals clear in the lead position, though having played a game more than Belgium, as Christoph Baumgartner scored twice as of now to secure a 2-0 win over Sweden.
The Scandinavians are at risk of neglecting to arrive at an Euro competition, interestingly beginning around 1996, sitting four points behind Belgium.
Haaland’s support
Haaland’s support assisted Norway in returning from their emotional loss to Scotland at the end of the week with a 3-1 triumph against Cyprus.
That kept their thin expectations of arriving at a first significant competition starting around 2000 alive, despite the fact that they just sit third in Gathering An and only one point in front of Spain, having played two games more than the three-time champions.
Bunch pioneers Scotland were not passed over course by a close to two-hour interference brought about by a weighty downpour as they kept up with their 100% record with a 2-0 win over Georgia.
Callum McGregor scored in the sixth minute in absurd circumstances before the game was suspended.
Various pitch assessments then, at that point, occurred in the midst of reports that Georgia needed the game delayed before it ultimately restarted at 9:35 p.m. neighborhood time (1935 GMT), and Scott McTominay got the focus.
Poland is in a difficult situation.
Poland tumbled to fourth place in Gathering E after blowing a two-objective lead to lose 3-2 to Moldova in Chisinau.
Moldova, who had won only one of their last 43 Euro and World Cup qualifying matches, seemed to have been securely dispatched by first-half goals from Arkadiusz Milik and Robert Lewandowski.
Be that as it may, Particle Nicolaescu’s twofold left Poland faltering, and Vladyslav Baboglo, who plays his club football for Ukrainian group Oleksandriya, headed past Wojciech Szczesny to score an emotional 85th-minute goal.
Moldova, 171st in the FIFA rankings, are currently third in the gathering standings, a point behind second-set Albania, who saw off the Faroe Islands 3-1.
Hungary moved top of Gathering G by cruising past Lithuania 2-0, level on focuses with Serbia after their 1-1 draw with Bulgaria.