Mitrovic's hat-trick, Ronaldo's blood and Garcia's bad luck: how the fifth round of the League of Nations ended

Sensational victory for Switzerland

Almost no game day of the League of Nations is complete without a sensation.

On Friday, Hungary unexpectedly beat Germany on the road, and on Saturday, Switzerland turned out to be stronger than Spain in Zaragoza - 2:1.

The Pyrenees came into this clash as the leader of Group 2 of the elite division and had to score three points to stay in first place.

However, they did not have the most successful meeting and, although they had possession of the ball 74% of the time, they delivered fewer shots on target than the opponent (four against five).

The guests made perfect use of the corners.

At the 21st minute, Manuel Akanji, after the submission of Ruben Vargas, accurately hit his head.

And after an hour of the match, Eric Garcia cut off a projectile into his own net.

This happened almost immediately after Jordi Alba equalized with a beautiful shot in the far top corner.

The favorites had enough time to escape, but they were no longer able to upset Jan Sommer.

Thus, the hosts not only suffered their first defeat of the year, but also for the first time in history lost to Switzerland at home.

The first failure came in the group stage of the 2010 World Cup.

Confident defeat from Portugal

Misfire neighbors provided an opportunity for Portugal to rise to the first position, and the wards of Fernando Santos had no right not to take advantage of it.

The Czech Republic in the current draw took away points from Spain, but this time it turned out to be powerless and conceded four unanswered goals at home.

The main character of the guests was Diogo Dalot.

Everyone was waiting for goals from his star Manchester United partner Cristiano Ronaldo, but a defender who was not famous for high performance unexpectedly came to the fore.

That evening he managed to get the first double in his career.

Moreover, the player has not previously scored for the national team.

In Prague, he first opened the scoring, opening in the position of an attacker and breaking through Tomas Vaclik between the legs, and in the second half he delivered an accurate low kick from outside the penalty area into the far corner.

Ronaldo was also in the spotlight.

At the beginning of the meeting, he tried to win the horse fight against Vatslik and was hit in the face by him.

Cristiano had a badly broken nose, and the blood could not be stopped for a long time.

Despite this, the striker remained on the field and, shortly before the break, almost helped the opponent return to the game.

At the corner, he intuitively covered his face with his hands and gave the referee a reason to award a penalty.

However, Patrick Schick shot much higher from the penalty spot.

And the five-time winner of the Golden Ball was rehabilitated in the end, giving an assist to Diogo Jota.

Now the fate of the first place in Group 2 and a trip to the Final Four will be determined in a face-to-face match between Portugal and Spain.

But the champions of Europe-2016, in order to maintain leadership, it is enough to play a draw.

Uniform beating of Armenia

The Ukrainian national team continues to struggle for a return to the elite division.

After the defeat from Scotland in the postponed match of the first round, the team lost its leadership in Group 1 of League B. Therefore, it needed to beat Armenia on the road at all costs.

The Caucasian team in recent years has established itself as extremely uncompromising and capable of giving battle to any opponent, especially at home.

However, this time he failed to oppose anything to the opponent, having conceded five unanswered goals.

The reason for such an unsuccessful result was, among other things, the disqualification of two leaders - the central defender Varazdat Aroyan and the Krasnodar midfielder Eduard Spertsyan.

Without them, the hosts lasted just over 20 minutes, after which Oleksandr Tymchik closed the cross for Oleksandr Zubkov.

At the beginning of the second half, Joaquin Caparros' wards became more active and created several dangerous chances, but having missed the second from Zubkov, they finally stopped the resistance.

As a result, the guests brought the score to a large one.

Shakhtar's forward Artyom Dovbik managed to get a brace in the remaining time, and Danil Ignatenko scored with a beautiful long-range shot.

So the “zhovto-blakitnye” continued the struggle for promotion in the class.

But the Armenians run the risk of being relegated to the third division.

After defeating Ireland in the first round, they suffered four defeats in a row.

Serbia's unstoppable goalscorer

The struggle has also become extremely intense in Group 4 of League B, where the battle for access to the elite division is fought by Norway and Serbia.

The Scandinavians suffered an away defeat from Slovenia despite Erling Haaland's sixth goal in the tournament - 1:2.

The Serbs took advantage of this with pleasure, defeating Sweden at home - 4:1.

They were not embarrassed even by the unsuccessful beginning of the meeting.

Already in the 15th minute, the former Krasnodar midfielder Viktor Klasson neatly hooked the ball over the goalkeeper.

However, the guests could not do anything with the scorer of the hosts, Alexander Mitrovic, who was in great shape.

Forward "Fulham" even before the break struck two accurate headbutts.

And right after he closed the cutting pass of Dusan Vlahovic.

The referee first canceled the goal due to offside, but after watching the replay, he pointed to the center.

Mitrovic scored a hat-trick in less than half an hour and now, with five goals, is second only to Haaland in the LN scorer race.

Actually, the fate of a ticket to League A will be decided in their head-to-head confrontation.

However, Norway will also be satisfied with a draw, since in the first round it turned out to be stronger than its competitor - 1:0.

Israel's Historic Success

But the Israeli team has already reached the elite division.

Russia could well have been in its place, which last year was also determined by lot in the second quartet, but the domestic team was suspended from all international competitions.

Wards of Alon Hazan, in the absence of the main favorite, went through the tournament in one breath and scored eight points out of 12 possible, without suffering a single defeat.

They won a decisive victory at home over Albania - 2:1.

Even the absence of the best sniper in the history of Eran Zahavi, suspended for a very unusual reason, did not prevent the team from achieving success - the coaching staff and manager Yossi Benayoun refused the local star's request to live in a single room at the training camp.

But even without him, the hosts were stronger.

The denouement at the Bloomfield stadium turned out to be incredible.

In the end, the guests equalized thanks to a successful corner draw.

However, in the 92nd minute, Tai Baribo, who came on as a substitute, sent a projectile into the net, taking advantage of a successful rebound from the defender.