Help 10-man Portugal beat Armenia 3-2, Netherlands win 2-0 to get campaign back on track
Cristiano Ronaldo's hat trick gave 10-man Portugal a 3-2 win at Armenia on Saturday. Marcos Pizzelli scored from a free kick for Armenia in the 14th minute, but Ronaldo converted a penalty to level before the half-hour mark. The Ballon d'Or holder then added two more goals in the 55th and 58th to secure victory and keep Portugal top of Group I.
Portugal's Tiago Cardoso was sent off with a second yellow card in the 62nd, and Hrayr Mkoyan scored the hosts' second goal 10 minutes later. Portugal tops the group with 12 points, while Armenia was left in last place with one. Denmark, second with seven points, hosts Serbia later. Albania also has seven points with a game to play. Armenia went ahead through their only shot on target in the first half when midfielder Pizzelli struck home a free kick from 25 meters (yards) out.
But Ronaldo didn't waste his chance to pull the visitors level in the 28th, firing in a penalty kick after Henrikh Mkhitaryan fouled Joao Moutinho. Portugal toiled the rest of the way to halftime and only mustered a shot by Fabio Coentrao, which was saved by goalkeeper Roman Berezovski a minute before the interval. Ronaldo then scored two more — the second goal coming from outside the box— to give Portugal the cushion it needed after Mkoyan scored a rebound from Rui Patricio's save.
Wales closer to qualifying
Wales and Iceland both moved closer to qualifying for the 2016 European Championship on Friday. Gareth Bale moved Wales closer to a first major tournament since 1958 by scoring to secure a 1-0 victory over Belgium that lifted the country top of Group B. Iceland is trying to qualify for its first ever tournament and came from a goal down to beat the Czech Republic 2-1 and take over the lead in Group A.
GROUP A
PSV Eindhoven teammates Georginio Wijnaldum and luciano Narsingh scored second-half goals as the Netherlands beat latvia 2-0 in Riga to move closer to second place in its European Championship qualifying group.
Iceland’s win meant it leapfrogged the Czech Republic to lead the group by two points after six rounds. The Netherlands is now three points behind the Czechs. Turkey, which got a late winner from Arda Turan for a 1-0 victory in Kazakhstan, is fourth. The Dutch win was the first on the road for Guus Hiddink since he started his second stint in charge of the national team after it finished third in last year’s World Cup.
Wijnaldum poked the ball just inside the post in the 67th minute and Narsingh added the second four minutes later. In Reykjavik, Borek Dockal opened the scoring for the Czechs before Aron Gunnarsson and Kolbeinn Sightorsson gave Iceland the win.
GROUP B
Wales is close to ending its wait for an appearance at a major tournament. Bale pounced on a defensive mistake to score the winner against Belgium in the 25th minute, lifting the Welsh to the top of Group B. With four games left, Wales is three points above Belgium and — more importantly — five points clear of third-place Israel, which lost 3-1 at Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The 1958 World Cup was the last major finals involving Wales, even though the country has had top players down the years such as Ryan Giggs, Ian Rush and Mark Hughes. led by the irrepressible Bale, who has five goals in the group, the current generation is making its mark under coach Chris Coleman and has won three and drawn three of its six games for its best ever start to a qualifying campaign. Cyprus beat Andorra 3-1 and is tied on points with Israel. Bosnia-Herzegovina is a point back in fifth, with Edin Visca (2) and Edin Dzeko the scorers against Israel.
GROUP H
Italy stretched its unbeaten run in qualifiers for European Championships and World Cups to 46 matches thanks to a cheeky chipped penalty that cancelled out a disputed opening goal for Croatia. Italy forward Stephan El Shaarawy had tapped in from eight yards but his goal was incorrectly ruled offside. While several Italy players were protesting to the officials, Croatia resumed play and Mario Mandzukic scored on the counter-attack.
Mandzukic had an earlier penalty saved and then gave away a spot kick when he handled Andrea Pirlo’s free kick. Candreva converted. Norway missed the opportunity to make up ground on Croatia and Italy and remained third - two points behind Italy - following a 0-0 draw at home against Azerbaijan. Even Hovland headed Pal Andre Helland’s cross off the post with four minutes left.
Bulgaria was two points further back after winning 1-0 in Malta, despite Ilian Micanski missing a penalty on the stroke of halftime. Ivelin Popov scored in the 56th minute to hand Bulgaria only its second win of the qualifying campaign.