Portugal secured a 9-0 victory over Luxembourg, marking the ‘biggest goal difference’ win without Ronaldo.
Portugal continued its unbeaten run in Euro 2024 qualifying as it set a record for most goal difference wins without Cristiano Ronaldo.
Portugal cruised to a 9-0 victory over Luxembourg in their Euro 2024 qualifying Group J sixth match at the Estadio Auguste in Aumancio, Portugal on Wednesday (June 12).
It was Portugal’s largest goal difference victory in an A-match.
It was especially significant because it was achieved without Ronaldo, who has been the centerpiece of Portugal’s attack for nearly two decades.
Ronaldo missed the game due to accumulating cautions from earlier qualifiers.
Gonzalo Higuain, who has been touted as Ronaldo’s replacement, scored two of Portugal’s first three goals in the win.
Gonçalo Inacio opened the scoring in the 12th minute with a deflected header off a Bruno Fernandes cross, before Hamus doubled the lead in the 17th minute with a sharp left-footed grounder from the right side of the goal area.
In the 33rd minute, Hamus made it 3-0 when he beat a defender in the penalty area and fired a shot between the goalkeeper’s legs.
With an early lead thanks to Hamus, Portugal continued to fire off goals.
Inacio added another to make it 4-0 at halftime, and Diogo Jota went on a multi-goal run in the second half. Ricardo Orta, Fernandes, and João Felix also got on the scoresheet.
Portugal are unbeaten in six Euro qualifiers under Roberto Martinez, who was appointed in January to replace Fernando Santos, who stepped down at the end of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
In particular, they have been unstoppable, scoring 24 goals and not conceding a single one.
Only two other teams have kept a clean sheet in qualifying, Portugal and France. However, France has scored 11 goals, less than half of Portugal’s total.
In Group D, Wales defeated Latvia 2-0 thanks to Aaron Ramsey’s 29th-minute penalty and David Brooks’ stoppage-time winner.
Wales had suffered back-to-back defeats to Armenia (2-4) and Turkey (0-2) 카지노사이트넷 in their previous qualifying matches, but turned things around with a 0-0 draw against Jürgen Klinsmann’s South Korea in an exhibition match on Aug. 8.