Ronaldo scores for Portugal – 15 injured in Sofia

Thanks to superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal continued its successful series in the European Championship qualification. The Seleção, who have already qualified for the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany, won 2-0 (0-0) in Liechtenstein on Thursday evening. At the same time, Slovakia got their European Championship ticket with a 4:2 (2:1) win against Iceland.

Ronaldo (46th minute) and former Bayern professional João Cancelo (57th) ensured an unchallenged victory for the outsiders in Vaduz. For the Portuguese it was their ninth win in their ninth European Championship qualifying game.

Two yellow-red cards

The Slovaks’ success was also largely unthreatened. Juraj Kucka (30th), former Bundesliga professional Ondrej Duda (36th) and Lukas Haraslin (47th/55th) scored the goals against Iceland. Orri Oskarsson (17th) and Andri Gudjohnsen (74th) scored for the guests.

The Luxembourgers, who have been surprisingly strong so far in this European Championship qualification, can still qualify through the playoffs after another success. Cologne’s Mathias Olesen (6th), Gerson Rodrigues (30th/penalty/90th+5) and an own goal from Nihad Mujakic (55th) ensured the 4-1 (2-0) win against Bosnia-Herzegovina. Renato Gojkovic (90th + 4) scored the goal for the guests.

The Hungarians, who celebrated wildly after Alex Petkow’s own goal (90th + 7), are now safely through. Martin Adam (10th) initially gave the guests the lead, but then the game slipped away. After goals conceded by Spas Delew (24th) and Kiril Despodow (79th, penalty kick) as well as yellow-red cards against Bulgaria’s Valentin Antow (37th) and Hungary’s Milos Kerkez (57th), the first qualifying defeat threatened until the last moment.

Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 4 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2 Sebastian Stier, Berlin Published/Updated: Recommendations: 9

The duel, which had already been classified as a “high-risk game”, was overshadowed by serious riots between Bulgarian fans and the police, in which 15 people suffered injuries. The game took place in Sofia behind closed doors; there were clashes between around 2,000 fans and the police in front of the stadium.