Tuesday's 1-0 victory over Iceland in the Euro 2024 qualifying match between Portugal and Norway was the 200th international appearance for Cristiano Ronaldo. Erling Haaland scored twice for Norway.
Romelu Lukaku scored twice to help Belgium defeat Estonia in Tallinn, putting an end to the Thibaut Courtois captaincy controversy, and Moldova stunned Poland by rallying from two goals behind.
Up until Willum Thor Willumsson was dismissed late in the game in Reykjavik, Portugal seemed destined for a dull goalless draw.
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Ronaldo struggled for much of the match but repaid coach Roberto Martinez’s faith by slotting home from Goncalo Inacio’s knock-down in the 89th minute.
“It was a nice script (for Ronaldo). There was incredible celebration, the first men’s player ever in world football to get 200 international games,” Martinez told uefa.com.
The former Real Madrid and Manchester United player initially had his 123rd international goal disallowed for offside but VAR overturned the decision.
“For me it’s an unbelievable achievement, it’s amazing,” said the 38-year-old Ronaldo. “And of course to score the winning goal, it’s even more special.”
Portugal remain two points clear of Slovakia at the top of Group J after a fourth straight win.
Slovakia, who would play Portugal the following month, defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 to maintain its perfect record.
With a superb 2-0 away win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg gave their improbable campaign to qualify for their first international event a boost and moved into third place, just three points behind Slovakia.
The top two finishers in each group advance automatically to the finals in Germany the following year.
CAPTAIN LUKAKU STARS
Belgium goalkeeper Courtois had said he was “surprised” that coach Domenico Tedesco told a press conference he had refused to travel to Estonia after being overlooked for the stand-in captaincy last week.
Tedesco had wanted to hand Lukaku the armband for Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Austria and give Courtois the honour in Tallinn, with regular captain Kevin De Bruyne absent.
But with Courtois instead back home, Lukaku was named skipper again and responded by scoring two goals in a 3-0 success which helped Belgium stay second in Group F.
Austria remained three points clear in first place, albeit having played a game more than Belgium, as Christoph Baumgartner scored twice in the last 10 minutes to clinch a 2-0 win over Sweden.
The Scandinavians are in danger of failing to reach a Euro tournament for the first time since 1996, sitting four points behind Belgium.
Haaland’s brace helped Norway bounce back from their dramatic defeat by Scotland at the weekend with a 3-1 victory against Cyprus.
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