On Tuesday afternoon, Portugal visited Iceland, at the Laugardalsvöllur stadium, in Reykjavík (ISL), for the fourth round of the Euro Cup Qualifiers, which takes place between June and July 2024, in Germany. With a goal by Cristiano Ronaldo in the 45th minute of the final stage, the visitors won by 1-0.
The match featured tributes to the Portuguese star, who played his 200th game defending the Portuguese team. Incidentally, he is the top scorer among national teams, with 123 goals scored.
With the result, the Portuguese team maintains 100% success in the competition and, thus, remains at the top of Group J, with 12 points added. On the other hand, the Icelanders are in fifth position, with three units.
In the next round, therefore, Portugal will visit Slovakia, at 3:45 pm (Brasília time) on September 8, at the Tehelné pole stadium, in Bratislava (SVK). At the same time, Iceland face Luxembourg at the Luxembourg Stadium in Luxembourg (LUX).
The game between Portugal and Iceland
Even not playing on Portuguese soil, it was the Lusitanian team that created the best opportunities. After just seven minutes, Rúben Dias took advantage of a corner kick and headed it into the right corner, but stopped in Rúnarsson’s defense. At 15, it was Pepe’s turn to have the header saved by the Icelandic goalkeeper.
In the 21st minute, the Portuguese-Brazilian defender received the ball deflected by Rúben Días after a cross in the area and hit the opposing goal post. Even before the end of the first half, at 42 minutes, Rafael Leão crossed from the left, and Cristiano Ronaldo headed it into the small area, but Rúnarsson made another great save and prevented the goal.
On the way back from the break, Portugal went on the attack in search of opening the scoring. At 32 minutes, Cristiano Ronaldo received the ball in the small area, dominated between two defenders and tried to finish with a heel, but ended up stopped by Fridriksson.
Two minutes later, Iceland’s life got more complicated. That’s because Willumsson received the second yellow card and ended up being expelled from the field after a hard tackle on Gonçalo Inácio.
With that, the Portuguese increased the pressure and finally managed to open the scoring in the 45th minute of the second half. Cristiano Ronaldo received a pass from Gonçalo Inácio and finished to beat Rúnarsson and guarantee the Lusitanian victory.
Check out all of this Tuesday’s results in the Euro Qualifiers:
Austria 2 x 0 Sweden
Bosnia & Herzegovina 0 x 2 Luxembourg
Bulgaria 1 x 1 Serbia
Estonia 0-3 Belgium
Faroe Islands 1 v 3 Albania
Hungary 2-0 Lithuania
Iceland 0 x 1 Portugal
Liechtenstein 0 x 1 Slovakia
Moldova 3 v 2 Poland
Norway 3 x 1 Cyprus
Scotland 1-0 Georgia
Source: Gazetaesportiva
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
