CR7-less Portugal on cloud 9
Washington, September 12
Portugal didn’t need Cristiano Ronaldo to rack up their biggest-ever win in a competitive game.
A 9-0 rout of Luxembourg in European Championship qualifying on Monday was achieved without Ronaldo, who was suspended because of an accumulation of yellow cards in earlier Group J games.
In the absence of the five-time world player of the year and record scorer in men’s internationals, Goncalo Ramos, Goncalo Inacio and Diogo Jota all scored twice along with goals for Ricardo Horta, Bruno Fernandes and Joao Felix in the Algarve.
In Group D, Croatia’s 1-0 win over Armenia in Yerevan was delayed for about 70 seconds in the first half when a drone carrying the flag of Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway Armenian-populated region of Azerbaijan, flew over the field. — AP
