NOS Football•yesterday, 8:04 PM•Amended yesterday, 10:45 PM
Portugal has recorded a convincing victory over Poland in the Nations League. In Warsaw it became 1-3. The match was a clash between top strikers Robert Lewandowski and Cristiano Ronaldo.
After 26 minutes, Bernardo Silva put the Portuguese at 0-1. More than ten minutes later, Rafael Leão hit the post after a nice dribble, after which Ronaldo scored on the rebound.
It was the 906th goal of Ronaldo’s career, and his 133rd in the Portugal shirt.
Piotr Zielinski restored the tension with a goal in the 78th minute. But an own goal by Jan Bednarek killed the home team. That goal came from a counter, after referee Serdar Gözübüyük had refused to award a penalty to Michael Ameyaw.
Croatia claimed its second win of the Nations League season earlier in the evening. In Zagreb, Scotland were defeated 2-1, partly thanks to a disallowed goal deep in injury time.
Ivan Perisic (PSV) and Josip Sutalo (Ajax) were in the starting line-up for Croatia. Scotland still has zero points after three games.
Defensive mistake
The Scots did take the lead through a goal by Ryan Christie, who took advantage of a blunder in the Croatian defense. Four minutes later the home team hit back through Igor Matanovic. With twenty minutes to go, Andrej Kramaric decided the game in Croatia’s favor.
Deep into injury time, Scotsman Ché Adams suddenly got the ball in front of his feet, just in front of the Croatian goal. He fumbled the ball in, but was in an offside position. After a long VAR check, the goal was disallowed.
Spain is struggling
In group A4, Spain had great difficulty with Denmark in Murcia. Only after 79 minutes did Martín Zubimendi break the spell, with a deflected shot that became untenable for Kasper Schmeichel.
A long VAR check followed, because Mikel Merino allegedly committed a foul on Victor Nelsson in the run-up to the goal, but the goal stood. Thanks to the 1-0 win, Spain is now at the top of the group.
Number three Serbia won 2-0 against Switzerland thanks to an own goal by Nico Elvedi and a nice shot by Aleksandar Mitrovic. Switzerland is still winless.
