Ronaldo on target as Portugal maintain perfect start

WARSAW: Portugal’s Bern­ardo Silva and Cristiano Ronaldo scored first-half goals in a comfortable 3-1 win away to Poland in the Nations League on Saturday as the Group A1 leaders continued their perfect start to the competition with three wins.
Silva put Portugal in front after 26 minutes, netting from Bruno Fernandes’ headed assist, before captain Ronaldo got his 133rd international goal when he doubled the lead 11 minutes later with a first-time shot after Rafael Leao hit the post.
Piotr Zielinski pulled a goal back for Poland in the 78th with a powerful strike into the roof of the net before home defender Jan Bednarek netted an own goal in the dying minutes.
Portugal continue to set the pace in League A Group One with nine points, three points clear of Croatia.
“We worked very hard the last few days, preparing various solutions for this game, and we were able to show it on the pitch. I am really satisfied because we controlled this game,” said Portugal coach Roberto Martinez. “We played great as a team.”
Poland, who beat Scotland 3-2 on the road in their opener before losing 1-0 in Croatia, are third with three points while the Scots have none so far.
“It’s not only today that we didn’t have the ball in the box very often, we rarely play into it. It’s the striker’s role to try to do something there, but sometimes there’s just nothing to work with,” Poland’s striker Robert Lewandowski said.
“We should strike a balance between good defensive play and creating opportunities up front. There’s a lack of schemes, of risking it and going for it blindly sometimes.
“In football, you can’t do something at 90%. You have to do it at 100% and be sure that if you do it, others will too.”

Meanwhile, Croatia came from behind to beat visitors Scotland 2-1 earlier on Saturday.
Ryan Christie’s first half-goal gave Scotland a shock lead in Zagreb, but Igor Matanovic equa­lised before the interval and Andrej Kramaric bagged the winner midway through the second half.
Che Adams thought he had salvaged a stoppage-time equaliser but VAR disallowed his effort for offside, with Scotland winless in nine competitive outings — the longest run in their history.
ZUBIMENDI WINS IT FOR SPAIN
In Murcia, Spain needed a 79th-minute effort from Martin Zubimendi to shrug off Denmark 1-0 as captain Alvaro Morata showed off the European Championship trophy to fans before kick-off.
The hosts were without Rodri and Dani Carvajal, both sidelined by long-term injuries, with first-choice goalkeeper Unai Simon still recovering from wrist surgery. Nico Williams, Dani Olmo and Robin Le Normand had also been ruled out.
But Luis de la Fuente’s team grabbed the only goal when Zubimendi’s low drive from just outside the area squirmed past Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who had earlier denied Lamine Yamal and Alvaro Morata.
“I’m very happy with the goal, but above all in such a close game in which we had to open the scoring,” said Real Sociedad midfielder Zubimendi.
Spain moved up to seven points, one above Denmark, with Serbia picking up their first win after beating Switzerland 2-0 in Leskovac.
Serbia led through Nico Elv­edi’s own goal in first-half stoppage time and Aleksandar Mit­rovic doubled the advantage before Predrag Rajkovic saved a penalty from Swiss striker Breel Embolo.
Both games in Group C3 finished goalless as Bulgaria were held at home by Luxembourg and Northern Ireland drew against Belarus on neutral ground in Hungary.Romania eased to a 3-0 win away to Cyprus in Group C2, while Kosovo beat Lithuania 2-1.
Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2024