Cristiano Ronaldo led Portugal to a 2-0 victory over its guest, Ireland, in the match that brought the two teams together, on Wednesday evening, at the “Al Jarve” stadium in Faro, in the fourth round of Group A of the European qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup.
Sheffield United defender John Egan scored Ireland’s goal in the 45th minute with a header, and star Cristiano Ronaldo scored the equalizer for Portugal in the 89th minute with a header, reaching his 110th international goal and is the world’s top scorer, which he was currently sharing with Iranian Ali Daei, in his 180th international match.
Ronaldo returned to score Portugal’s second goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time from another header, to lead his country to a valuable victory.
Portugal
Portugal striker Cristiano Ronaldo received the award for top scorer in the last European Championship “Poro 2020”, before the start of the match, after he was crowned the tournament’s top scorer with 5 goals, a difference of minutes and assists from Czech player Patrick Shek..
Ireland goalkeeper Gavin Pazono saved Ronaldo’s penalty kick in the right corner in the 15th minute, to miss the first penalty kick with Portugal since the Iran match in the 2018 World Cup..
With this result, Portugal leads the group with 10 points from 4 matches, 3 points ahead of Serbia, who played 3 matches, while Ireland is in fourth place without a balance of points from 3 matches.
Portugal will face Qatar (the guest) next Saturday in an uncalculated match, and they will visit Azerbaijan on September 7.
In the same group today, Luxembourg defeated its guest, Azerbaijan, 2-1, to occupy the third place in the group with 6 points.
Portugal
Goalkeeper: Rui Patricio.
Defense line: Joao Cancelo – Pepe – Ruben Diaz – Rafael Guerrero.
Midfield: Pallina – Bruno Fernandez – Rafa Silva.
Forwards: Bernardo Silva – Diego Jota – Cristiano Ronaldo.