Titel defender Portugal won the opening game in the Nations League even without the help of superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Fernando Santos’ team deservedly beat Croatia 4-1 (1-0). World champion France and the top nations Belgium and England also started victorious.
Grandstand guest Cristiano Ronaldo, who sidelined due to an infection in his foot, saw his team win an undisputed victory thanks to goals from Joao Cancelo (41st), Diogo Jota (58th), Joao Felix (70th) and Eintracht Frankfurt’s Andre Silva (90th). +5). Raphael Guerreiro from Borussia Dortmund contributed an assist.
France won the second game in Group 3 of Division A in Sweden 1-0 (1-0) thanks to a goal from star striker Kylian Mbappe (41st). RB Leipzig defender Dayot Upamecano (21) celebrated his debut for Les Bleus, while team-mate Emil Forsberg (28) made his 50th international match on the Swedish side.
Belgium scored a 2-0 (1-0) away win against Denmark in Group 2. The decisive man for the third place in the 2018 World Cup was Dries Mertens from SSC Napoli, who first put Jason Denayer 1-0 from a corner (9th) and later scored himself (77th).
In the early evening England had won their first game in Iceland in a dramatic way 1-0 (0-0). Raheem Sterling converted a hand penalty (90th) shortly before the end, two minutes later Iceland’s Birkir Bjarnason missed the chance to equalize on the opposite side of the point. Before that, Kyle Walker (70th) and Sverrir Ingason (89th) had each seen yellow-red.
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