UEFA Nations League: No Ronaldo, No Problem For Portugal
Portugal, inaugural champions of the UEFA Nations League kicked off their 2020/2021 UEFA Nations League campaign with an emphatic 4-1 victory over Croatia despite playing without key man and skipper, Cristinao Ronaldo.
Ruled out of the game against Croatia with a toe infection that has been likened to a bee sting, an impressed Ronaldo watched from the stands as his national team mates crush Croatia.
Goals from Joao Cancelo(41), Diogo Jota (58), Joao Felix (70) and Andre (90+4) Silva wrapped up the comfortable win for the inaugural champions of the Portugal, who have now won nine of their last 10 matches.
Bruno Petkovic’s (90+1) goal was all the Croatians who have never beaten Portugal, having drawn one and lost five of their six encounters to date could get out of the game.
Ronaldo is just one goal away from scoring 100 goals for Portugal and we wait to see if he will feature when Portugal faces Sweden in their next game.
In other games of the competition,
Kylian Mbappe squeezed best two defenders to score with France’s only shot on goal on in Solna to give the world champions a 1-0 victory over Sweden in the opening round of matches in the Nations League.
The goal moved Mbappe’s goal tally to four goals and three assists in his last seven games for France.
France face Croatia in a rematch of the 2018 World Cup final at the Stade de France in Paris on Tuesday.
England vs Iceland.
Raheem Sterling scored a late winner from the spot to hand England a 1-0 win over Iceland in their dramatic Nations League opener on Saturday.
Iceland also missed a penalty in a dramatic end to the game in Reykjavik.
Harry Kane was wrongfully denied an early opener before Kyle Walker was sent off for two bookable offences in the second half and Iceland missed a penalty in the action packed encounter.
England will Denmark in Copenhagen on Tuesday as they look to make it back-to-back wins after 10 months away from the international game.
Belgium vs Denmark
Despite the notable absence of key players such as Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne, Belgium defeated Denmark 2-0 to register their 11th win in a row in their first game back after a 10-month hiatus thanks to goals from Jason Denayer and Dries Mertens.
Results
Saturday 5 September
A2 Iceland 0-1 England
A2 Denmark 0-2 Belgium
A3 Portugal 4-1 Croatia
A3 Sweden 0-1 France
C1 Azerbaijan 1-2 Luxembourg
C1 Cyprus 0-2 Montenegro
C2 North Macedonia 2-1 Armenia
C2 Estonia 0-1 Georgia
D2 Gibraltar 1-0 San Marino
Today’s Fixtures
Sunday 6 September
B4 Wales vs Bulgaria (15:00)
D1 Andorra vs Faroe Islands (15:00)
B3 Hungary vs Russia (18:00)
B4 Republic of Ireland vs Finland (18:00)
C3 Slovenia vs Moldova (18:00)
A4 Spain vs Ukraine (20:45)
A4 Switzerland vs Germany (20:45)
B3 Serbia vs Turkey (20:45)
C3 Kosovo vs Greece (20:45)
D1 Malta vs Latvia (20:45)
