EURO2024Q: Ronaldo fails to score in his last ever EURO qualifier

One of the very few things that Cristiano Ronaldo failed to do in his fruitful football career is to be the best scorer of the qualifications for EURO. And tonight was his last attempt, considering that at the age of 38, the Al-Nassr forward will not play in EURO 2028. Against lowly Iceland, Portugal had nothing to gain, considering that they already secured they place in Germany, and will be top seeded in the draw for the championship in January in Hamburg, so all eyes were on Ronaldo. But, it was not meant to be. As the Sunday 19th of November started, both Cristiano and Romelu Lukaku were at the top with 10 goals apiece. And then Roma striker exploded with four goals in the space of 37 minutes in a win over Azerbaijan and set the bar too high for Ronaldo, who only managed an assist in Portugal’s 2-0 win over Iceland. Bruno Fernandes and Ricardo Horta scored for the hosts while Ronaldo shot from all angles, but failed to find the net and kept his number at 10 goals in this qualifications.

In another interesting game tonight, Spain managed to put themselves among the top seeded teams for the EURO draw with a 3-1 win over Georgia. It was a victory tougher than expected, considering that they smashed tonight’s opponent 7-1 in Tbilisi two months ago, but with after Khvicha Kvaratskhelia leveled the score in the 10th minute, the hosts needed 45 minutes to take the lead again. Ferran Torres scored in the 55th minute before Lochosvili’s own goal finished everything. However, the game will be remembered by the serious injury to Barcelona’s Gavi, who limped off the pitch in tears and pain. The 19-year-old was tackled from behind, buckling the knee that had his weight on it.

"It's a serious injury to his right knee, but we need to wait to see how bad it actually is" the Spanish football federation said.

EURO 2024 QUALIFIERS

Saturday

Armenia - Wales 1-1 (1-1)

/Zelarayan 5 - Tiknizyian 45+2 og/

Belarus - Andorra 1-0 (0-0)

/Laptev 83/

Latvia - Croatia 0-2 (0-2)

/Majer 7, Kramaric 16/

Switzerland - Kosovo* 1-0 (0-0)

/Vargas 47/

Netherlands - R. Ireland 1-0 (1-0)

/Weghorst 11/

Israel - Romania 1-1 (1-1)

/Zahavi 2 - Puskas 10/

France - Gibraltar 14-0 (7-0)

/James Santos 3 og, Thuram 4, Zaire-Emery 16, Mbappe 30 pen, 74, 82, Clauss 34, Coman 36, 65, Fofana 37, Rabiot 63, Dembele 72, Giroud 89, 90+1/

Sunday

Sweden - Estonia 2-0 (1-0)

/Claesson 22, Forsberg 55/

Liechtenstein - Luxembourg 0-1 (0-0)

/Rodrigez 69/

B&H - Slovakia 1-2 (0-0)

/Hrosovski 49(og) - Bozenik 52, Šatka 72/

Scotland - Norway 3-3 (2-2)

/McGinn 13, Ostigarg 33 (og), Armstrong 59 - Donnum 3, Larsen 20, Elyonoussi 86/

Portugal - Iceland 2-0 (1-0)

/Fernandes 37, Horta 66/

Spain - Georgia 3-1 (1-1)

/Le Normand 4, Torres 55, Locoshvili (og) 72 - Kvaratskhelia 10/