The Portuguese national team is on the cusp of qualifying for the European Nations Cup finals (Euro 2024), scheduled to be held in Germany next summer.
The Portuguese national team won 9-0 over its guest, the Luxembourg national team, on Monday, in the sixth round of the tenth group in the qualifiers for the continental competition, which also witnessed the victory of Slovakia over its guest, Liechtenstein, 3-0, and Iceland over its guest, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1-0.
The Portuguese national team maintained the perfect mark in the group, after winning all six of its matches so far, to strengthen its position in the lead, after raising its score to 18 points, with a difference of 5 points in front of its closest rival, the Slovakian national team.
On the other hand, the Luxembourg team, which won its last three matches in the group, froze at 10 points in third place, 4 points ahead of the Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland teams, who ranked fourth and fifth respectively, while the Liechtenstein team remained at the bottom of the standings with no points.
Portugal opened the scoring in the 12th minute through Goncalo Inacio, before Goncalo Ramos added the second and third goals in the 18th and 34th minutes, respectively.
Inacio returned to score again, after scoring Portugal’s fourth goal and his second personal goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time for the first half.
The Portuguese team continued to dominate the match in the second half, as Diogo Jota and Ricardo Horta added the fifth and sixth goals for the hosts in the 57th and 67th minutes, respectively.
Jota scored Portugal’s seventh goal and his second personal goal in the 77th minute, before Bruno Fernandes and Joao Felix added the eighth and ninth goals in the 83rd and 88th minutes, respectively.
With that result, the Portuguese national team, which played the match without its star and captain, Cristiano Ronaldo, the Saudi Al-Nasr player, achieved the largest victory in its history in various competitions.
On the other hand, the Luxembourg national team, which suffered its 100th loss in the history of its participation in European Nations Cup qualifiers, equaled the largest defeat in its history, after it had also previously lost 0-9 to Germany in 1936 and England in 1960 and 1982.
