Portugal, launched by Cristiano Ronaldo again scorer twice three days after his double against Liechtenstein, signed its second success in as many qualifying matches for Euro-2004 by winning 6-0 in Luxembourg on Sunday. Seventy-two hours after an easy first match (4-0) in Lisbon, the Lusitanians left their hosts no chance, killing all suspense in the first quarter of an hour.
Nine minutes to open the scoring
From the 9th minute, Cristiano Ronaldo took advantage of a header from Nuno Mendez and only had to push the ball into the goal of Anthony Moris. Six minutes later, it was Joao Félix who doubled the lead: the Chelsea striker headed in an impeccable cross from Bernardo Silva (2-0, 15th). Decisive passer (for the 25th time in selection), the latter became a scorer three minutes later by knocking out the local team, also with a header.
The demonstration became humiliation on the half hour with the inevitable Ronaldo who took care of his statistics before giving up his place on the hour mark after scoring his 121st and 122nd goals in 198 selections! His 10th and 11th against the Luxembourgers, his favorite victims.
The Al-Nassr striker left the light late in the game to Otavio and Rafael Leao who sealed the score in the final minutes. The tactical scheme established by the new coach, the Spaniard Roberto Martinez, already seems well assimilated by a team on the rebound after elimination in the quarter-finals of the World Cup-2022. The 3-5-2, rarely used during Fernando Santos’ eight years in office, with Ronaldo and Joao Felix up front, makes great use of the width of the pitch to tear apart teams that are defending low.
Five games without defeat before meeting Portugal
Luxembourg probably did not expect to be suffocated in this way. Luc Holtz’s team, in constant progress in recent years, remained on five matches without defeat after crossing Bulgaria, Hungary or Turkey.
In a group of which the 2016 European champions are the big favourites, the Luxembourgers aim to join the fight for second qualifying place against Bosnia, Iceland and Slovakia. This will require recovering from the slap inflicted on Sunday by the Portuguese who had not won their first two qualifying matches for a Euro since 1996.