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Rúben Neves came to the rescue for Portugal with a injury-time winner in their World Cup qualifying encounter against Ireland, after Caoimhín Kelleher had denied a penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo.

Match Summary

Neves found the net during stoppage time to snatch a narrow win, four years after the star striker had bagged a brace late on to overcome a stubborn Irish side.

Heimir Hallgrímsson’s men appeared poised to leave Lisbon with a hard-fought point, but in the end suffered defeat, despite regaining a significant amount of honor with a battling performance that erased some of the recollections of last month’s embarrassing loss in Armenia.

However, the defeat leaves them in a difficult position, with their first three qualifying group matches having yielded only a solitary point. They need to defeat Armenia in Dublin on Tuesday to maintain any chance of claiming a qualifying spot.

Major Moments

• The Liverpool keeper looked to have earned Ireland a point when he superbly saved Ronaldo’s spot-kick with his trailing leg after a Portuguese player’s shot had hit an Irish defender’s hand.
• The match-winner came to his side’s rescue in the opening moments of stoppage time when he headed Trincão’s cross past Kelleher.

Other Group Results

Portugal’s Group

Hungary boosted their hopes of qualifying by picking up their first win with a two-goal victory over Armenia, moving above their rivals into the runner-up spot behind the group leaders in the standings. A Hungarian forward gave Hungary the lead in the opening period and Zsombor Gruber secured the victory in late added time.

England’s Group

Serbia slipped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Albania, with the outcome meaning the Three Lions can now seal their qualification from Group K by beating Latvia on Tuesday. An Albanian striker scored the decisive strike for his team with a neat volley in first-half stoppage time.

The Latvian side difficulties in their group persisted as they were forced to a 2-2 draw at home by the Andorran team. An Andorran player found the net for the away side late on from time to claim them their initial draw of the qualifying campaign and extend Latvia’s poor form to five games.

Group E

Spain maintained their impressive qualifying group run with a 2-0 win over Georgia after strikes from Jéremy Pino and his teammate in the match venue. The result continued the European champions’ perfect run in the qualifiers, having scored eleven strikes in three matches without letting in a goal.

Despite the absence of key figures such as Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams, and Rodri due to fitness issues, Luis de la Fuente’s side demonstrated their superiority against a Georgia team that passed most of the match sitting back. Spain controlled the encounter with over eighty percent of the ball, and Georgia did not have one shot on target or create a scoring opportunity, with only goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili preventing a heavy defeat.

Pino opened the scoring in the 24th minute from a well-executed dead-ball routine, and Oyarzabal secured the victory in the second period with a spectacular free kick after Mamardashvili had denied Ferran Torres’s spot-kick.

Additional Results

• The Turkish national team returned to winning ways with a comprehensive victory over Bulgaria to keep the pressure on Spain in Group E. The Spanish club’s a young talent was among the goal-getters.
• Italy improved their prospects of at least reaching the knockout stage with a comfortable win away to Estonia, thanks to goals from a forward, another attacker, and a third scorer.

The Italian coach commented: “We’re not thinking about the group leaders or Israel. We are aware of our responsibilities.”

The Azzurri missed out for the previous two global tournaments, twice missing out in the playoffs, and the dreaded backdoor route now looks their primary opportunity after Norway’s 5-0 win over the Israeli side in their qualifying group. The Norwegians are leading on eighteen points from six games. Italy have twelve points with a match less played on their rivals and are a trio of points ahead of their next opponents. The Estonian squad remain in fourth place on three points. The top teams advance automatically for the tournament, with the second-placed sides going into the qualifying stage.

Italy host Israel on Tuesday, where a victory would cement the runner-up position and, while they can still mathematically catch the group leaders on points, the Norwegians’ much better goal ratio means a playoff spot probably awaits for the Italian squad.