Although they are already qualified, the Portuguese did not travel as tourists to Liechtenstein this Thursday evening. Quite the contrary. The men of coach Roberto Martinez were on a (double) mission on the lawn of the Rheinpark Stadion in Vaduz: that of becoming the first Portuguese team to complete their qualifying matches with a faultless record – namely ten wins out of ten – and to allow Cristiano Ronaldo to finish, at 38, top scorer in a Euro qualifying phase. As surprising as it may seem, this too would be historic at the end of his fifth campaign.
But what was practically true was seeing Liechtenstein manage to keep Portugal in check at half-time. CR7 quickly corrected this anomaly upon returning from the locker room. After finding the post, barely eighteen seconds after the start of the second half, the captain of the Seleçao finally opened the scoring by placing a left shot under the bar (47th).
His ninth goal in these qualifications allows him to come back one step behind Romelu Lukaku (10 goals in 7 matches). But not to join the Belgian striker at the top of the ranking of top scorers in these qualifications, to the extent that Cristiano Ronaldo was replaced shortly after the hour mark.
Portugal could have closed the scoring with a 100% Parisian goal. Following an off-center free kick hit by the returning Vitinha, Gonçalo Ramos, disappointing until then, did it three times to push the ball deep (82nd). A goal finally refused by the VAR after very, too many minutes. All that remains for Portugal is to beat Iceland in three days and for CR7 to score at least one goal to achieve the grand slam in this qualifying phase.
