Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo offers himself a new double against Luxembourg

Europe 1 with AFP 14:17 pm, March 27, 2023

Portugal, launched by Cristiano Ronaldo again scorer twice three days after his double against Liechtenstein, scored its second success in as many qualifying matches at Euro 2004 with a 6-0 win in Luxembourg on Sunday. Seventy-two hours after an easy first match (4-0) in Lisbon, the Lusitano left no chance to their hosts, killing any suspense from the first quarter of an hour.

Nine minutes to open the scoring

As early as the 9th minute, Cristiano Ronaldo took advantage of a Nuno Mendez header serve and only had to push the ball into Anthony Moris' goal. Six minutes later, it was Joao Felix who doubled the bet: the Chelsea striker took the lead from an impeccable center of Bernardo Silva (2-0, 15th). Decisive passer (for the 25th time in selection), the latter became scorer three minutes later by knocking out the home team, also with his head.

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The demonstration became humiliation at the half-hour with the inevitable Ronaldo who took care of his statistics before giving up his place on the hour of play after scoring his 121st and 122nd goals in 198 caps! 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 rebounding after the elimination in the quarterfinals of the World Cup-2022. The 3-5-2, rarely used during Fernando Santos' eight years in office, with Ronaldo and Joao Felix at the attacking front, makes wonderful use of the width of the pitch to spread out teams that defend low.

Five matches without defeat before facing 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.

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In a group where the 2016 European champions are the big favorites, the Luxembourgers aim to join the fight for the second qualifying place against Bosnia, Iceland and Slovakia. It will be necessary to recover from the slap inflicted on Sunday by the Portuguese who had not won their first two qualifying matches to a Euro since 1996.