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Ronaldo nets double in Portugal win, holders Italy beat Malta

Reigning champions It aly bounced back fr om t heir loss t o England wit h a straighforward 2-0 away win over Malta

Cristiano Ronaldo continued his record-breaking form for Portugal as he grabbed two more goals in his country’s 6-0 thrashing of Luxembourg in a Euro 2024 qualifier on Sunday, giving them a second win in four days.

The 38-year-old grabbed a double against Liechtenstein on Thursday and scored twice more in Luxembourg to extend his record tally of international goals to 122 in 198 appearances.

Joao Felix, Bernando Silva, Otavio and Rafael Leao added the other goals to put Portugal top of Group J aer an easy start to their qualifying campaign.

New coach Roberto Martinez restored Ronaldo to the starting line-up last week and kept faith with him for the match in Luxembourg, where it took only nine minutes for the veteran superstar to open the scoring as he touched home Nuno Mendes’s soaring header.

Joao Felix doubled the lead in the 15th minute, rising high to get onto the end of Silva’s cross. Silva then himself headed home a powerful effort three minutes later aer being set up by Joao Palhinha.

Bruno Fernandes set up Ronaldo for the fourth, just past the half hour mark, with a ball over the defence that was finished with pin-point accuracy.

Luxembourg looked bedraggled in the first half but offered more resistance aer the break before Rafael Leao’s looping cross allowed fellow substitute Otavio to head home Portugal’s fi

Ruben Neves, yet to score for Portugal, struck the crossbar with a 83rd minute freekick before a penalty was awarded straight aer when Luxem bourg captain Laurent Jans tripped Rafael Leao.

The AC Milan forward got up off the turf to take the kick but his effort was saved by Luxembourg keeper Anthony Moris.

But Rafael Leao ran half the length of the field to latch onto Reuben Neves’ pass and cut inside before squeezing the ball home for a 6-0 scoreline with two minutes remaining.

Reigning champions Italy bounced back from their loss to England with a straighforward 2-0 away win over Malta.

Argentine-born forward mateo re te gui followed up his debut goal against England by opening the scoring early on.

Monza midfielder Mateo Pessina made it two before the half-hour mark and Italy comfortably saw out the victory.

Elsewhere in the group, Iceland bounced back from their opening defeat by Bosnia and Herzegovina by thrashing Liechtenstein 7-0.

Slovakia moved into second place behind Portugal with a 2-0 win over the Bosnians.

Denmark blew a two-goal lead to crash to a surprise 3-2 defeat in Kazakhstan.

The Euro 2020 semi-finalists appeared to be cruising to victory in the Group H match as Atalanta youngster Rasmus Hojlund neted twice in the first half aer scoring a hat-trick against Finland on Thursday.

Kazakhstan had started their bid to qualify for a first ever major tournament with a home defeat by Slovenia.

But Bakhtiyor Zaynutdinov’s 73rd-minute penalty gave the hosts hope of a famous turnaround in Astana.

Midfielder Askhat Tagybergen crashed a longrange drive past a helpless Kasper Schmeichel with four minutes of normal time remaining to equalise.

Substitute Abat Aymbetov provided the golden moment for Kazakhstan -- who have already at least secured a Euro 2024 play-off spot through the Nations League -- leaping to power a header into the top corner in the 89th minute.

He was later sent off for a second yellow card but by then had already grabbed all three points.

Slovenia batled to a 2-0 victory over San Marino in the second Group H match to move top of the early standings.

Finland edged out northern ireland 1-0 in belfast to make it four teams with one win behind Slovenia.

SPORT

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2023-03-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

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