Decisive match for World Cup qualification for Portugal: the Lusitanians want to take care of their lead over Hungary to lastly safe qualification.
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No issues within the first half for the Portuguese: regardless of Armenia extremely managing to equalize at 1-1 with their solely assault within the first 45 minutes, Portugal quickly delivers a one-two punch that breaks the sport open, all in reminiscence of Diogo Jota.
Qualification now appears solely 45 minutes away for the Portuguese, with Hungary’s lead over Eire at present meaningless.
All of this within the absence of CR7, suspended after the purple card he obtained for elbowing Dara O’Shea in the course of the stunning defeat to Eire within the final match, and changed by Gonçalo Ramos.
😬 CR7’s Message
Regardless of the various controversies over CR7’s absence, the Portugal captain wished to ship a message of assist to his teammates for such a historic match.
“Força group! All united at the moment and all the time! For Portugal and for our flag!”, this was Cristiano Ronaldo’s message.
🥲 Veiga Opens the Scoring, Double Tribute
The match’s rating opens after simply 7 minutes with a header from former Juventus participant Renato Veiga.
Venomous free kick from Bruno Fernandes from the aspect: the ball ricochets between the goalkeeper and the submit and Veiga heads it into the web.
First worldwide objective for the defender, who devoted the objective to Diogo Jota by displaying along with his palms the numbers 2 and 1, which made up the jersey variety of his former nationwide teammate who died a number of months in the past in a automobile accident.
Some additionally seen that Veiga scored sporting the quantity 13 jersey, which belonged to Eusébio, on the very day devoted to the reminiscence of the legendary “Black Panther”.
🥵 Issues Get Sophisticated
There was barely time to rejoice Eire’s penalty, which briefly leveled Hungary-Eire, when Portugal conceded the equalizer within the 18th minute.
Lightning-fast run down the wing by Ranos and a cross for a simple tap-in by Spertsyan, which difficult issues for the Portuguese, a minimum of for a couple of minutes.
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eleventh worldwide objective for Spertsyan of Krasnodar, the one participant within the Armenian squad to have reached double digits internationally.
🤩 Tribute to Diogo Jota and Sport Breaks Open
Within the twenty first minute, matching Diogo Jota’s jersey quantity, the Estadio do Dragao paid a heartfelt tribute to the participant who died on July 3 in a automobile accident alongside along with his brother.
Across the half-hour mark, the turning level of the match arrived: two objectives in two minutes allowed Portugal to drag forward and lower Armenia’s legs out from beneath them.
Within the twenty eighth minute, Gonçalo Ramos struck along with his tenth worldwide objective, pouncing on a reckless again cross from the Armenian protection.
Then within the thirtieth minute got here Joao Neves’ objective, a blistering low shot from the sting of the field: additionally his first objective for the nationwide group.
Joao Neves then scored once more within the forty first minute to make it 4-1 with a spectacular free kick that hit the underside of the crossbar earlier than stepping into, behind an Avagyan who could not even transfer.
💥 Cease that Bruno Fernandes
In added time of the primary half, the fifth objective arrived, with a centrally taken penalty by Bruno Fernandes.
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63 penalties scored out of 71 taken for Fernandes, who has by no means missed from the spot for the Portuguese nationwide group (he has taken 4).
The United midfielder had already delighted followers within the first half with a rabona cross.
He would unlock the rating once more in the beginning of the second half, with the 6-1 objective arrange by a play from Gonçalo Ramos: a blistering diagonal shot and his twenty seventh objective for the nationwide group.
However Bruno Fernandes’ match wasn’t over but, as he additionally took the captain’s armband (usually worn by Cristiano Ronaldo) after Bernardo Silva left the sphere: within the 72nd minute, one other penalty allowed the quantity 8 of the Portuguese nationwide group to additional enhance the rating and his personal stats, bringing his group to 7-1.
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Briefly, Portugal continues to dominate, with World Cup qualification now just about secured.
This text was translated into English by Synthetic Intelligence.
📸 Carlos Rodrigues – 2025 Getty Photographs