Spain, the European champions, defeated Serbia 3-0 on Tuesday to move to the UEFA Nations League quarterfinals.
In the meantime, Portugal, led by Cristiano Ronaldo, was held to a frustrating 0-0 stalemate with Scotland.
Champions in Europe On Tuesday, Spain defeated Serbia 3-0 to guarantee their spot in the UEFA Nations League quarterfinals, while Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo were frustrated in a 0-0 stalemate with Scotland. Following in Germany’s footsteps, Spain, the current Nations League champions, moved to 10 points from a possible 12 in Group A4, making them the second side to secure a quarter-final berth.
On a soggy evening in Cordoba, Andalusia, Spain defeated Serbia without the participation of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, the two wing heroes of the country’s successful Euro 2024 campaign.
Aymeric Laporte’s early header gave La Roja the lead, but that didn’t matter because they shook off Alvaro Morata’s missed penalty kick at the beginning of the second half.
On the 65th minute, captain Morata scored a beautiful goal to make it 2-0, and Alex Baena, who played in the Euros before leading Spain to Olympic gold, scored a free kick to make it 3-0. Following the dismissal of defender Strahinja Pavlovic, Serbia ended up with ten men.
“We’re in another final phase, which is the important thing — it might seem easy but we’re in all of these final phases in recent years, and that deserves credit,” Morata stated to state-owned TVE.
Denmark’s 2-2 draw with Switzerland, who support the group, puts them in the best position to advance with Spain.
The Danes fell behind twice, with Zeki Amdouni giving the Swiss the lead with a penalty in first-half stoppage time after Gustav Isaksen nearly immediately cancelled out Remo Freuler’s opening goal. However, Denmark departed St Gallen with a point thanks to a goal from Christian Eriksen on minute 69.
Portugal had to settle for a share of the spoils with Scotland at Hampden, dropping points for the first time in Group A1. More than 21 years after his debut, Ronaldo made his 200th start for his nation on his 216th international appearance.
At full time, the 39-year-old yelled at the referees and rushed off the pitch after failing to add to his 133 Portugal goals.
The host team held out to earn their first point in the top division of the Nations League, but it took a spectacular stop from goalie Craig Gordon to avoid Bruno Fernandes from giving Portugal a late goal.
They were able to break a four-game losing streak in the competition with that, but they have only won once in their last 16 games, that being in a friendly against Gibraltar.
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“They had an amazing goalie. “The performance was good, even though we couldn’t score,” Portugal coach Roberto Martinez told UEFA.com.
“Results are a consequence of performances and, tonight, we deserved to win.”
After an exciting 3-3 tie with Poland in Warsaw that included five goals in the first half, Croatia is now second in the group behind Portugal.
Poland took an early lead thanks to Piotr Zielinski of Inter Milan, who was wearing the captain’s armband because Robert Lewandowski started on the bench.
But after 26 minutes, Croatia led 3-1 thanks to goals from Petar Sucic and Martin Baturina, as well as an equalizer from Borna Sosa.
Sebastian Szymanski scored a fantastic goal halfway through the second half to secure a draw for Poland, but Nicola Zalewski pulled one back in stoppage time in the first half.
After goalie Dominik Livakovic was sent off for catching Lewandowski outside the area, Croatia finished the match with ten men.
Northern Ireland defeated Bulgaria 5-0 in Belfast to take first place in Group 3 of the third-tier League C.
With a hat-trick, Standard Liege’s Isaac Price emerged victorious, becoming the nation’s youngest player to ever score three goals in a match. David Healy scored the last hat-trick for Northern Ireland in 2007.
The final goals came from a late Josh Magennis effort and an own goal by goalie Dimitar Mitov, while Bulgarian captain Kiril Despodov missed a penalty.
Romania and Kosovo defeated Lithuania and Cyprus, respectively, in Group C2, while Belarus and Luxembourg drew 1-1 in the same group.