Tag: UEFA Nations League

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NGOLO KANTE SCORES TO SEND FRANCE TO NATIONS LEAGUE SEMIS AS HOLDERS PORTUGAL SENT PACKING.

France handed defending Nations League champions Portugal a rare defeat on Saturday, winning 1-0 in Lisbon with N’Golo Kante’s second-half strike to reach the competition’s final four at the expense of the holders.

Anthony Martial missed three clear-cut first half chances for France before Kante scored only his second international goal in the 54th minute, and his first since 2016, to end Portugal’s run of five successive clean sheets.

World champions France went top of Group A3 with 13 points from five games, three ahead of Portugal and with the better head-to-head record to give them an unassailable lead. It was only Portugal’s second defeat since the 2018 World Cup.

“Given the quality of the opposition, it’s of course one of our best performances of recent times,” France coach Didier Deschamps said of Portugal, who are the European champions.

“We deserved the win and we’ve fulfilled our objective of finishing top. I’m very proud of the players. They proved tonight that France are still a great team.”

Antoine Griezmann set up Martial’s first chance in the 12th minute with a slide-rule pass but Portugal’s excellent goalkeeper Rui Patricio blocked it at point-blank range.

Martial then diverted Adrien Rabiot’s acrobatic effort onto the bar with his head and saw another effort brilliantly saved at close range by Patricio from Lucas Hernandez’s cross.

At the other end, Cristiano Ronaldo forced a diving save from France captain Hugo Lloris and also wasted a free kick which he drove straight into the wall.

France finally broke through just as Portugal appeared to be imposing themselves. Griezmann slipped another ball through to Rabiot whose shot was parried by Patricio and Kante was on hand to score from the rebound.

Portugal had three chances go begging in the same attack, including a Jose Fonte header against the post, and Lloris made a one-handed save to parry a raking drive from Joao Moutinho, who then saw his cross evade three forwards as France held out.

“I don’t know what went wrong in the first half, it wasn’t what I expected but it was my responsibility,” said Portugal coach Fernando Santos.

“We were better in the second half but then conceded the goal which settled the game… we had three or four chances to equalise.”

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BELGIUM EASE PAST ENGLAND TO SECURE PLACE IN UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE FINALS.

Belgium rode two first-half goals to a 2-0 UEFA Nations League win over England on Sunday night.

Youri Tielemans fired the hosts in front inside of 10 minutes with a low line drive that took a slight deflection to beat Jordan Pickford in the England goal.

Belgium went two clear midway through the first half with a spectacular free kick from Dries Mertens that went up and over the wall before flying past Pickford at the near post.

England needed a win to put themselves back in the frame for a place in the Nations League finals, but Gareth Southgate’s side found themselves chasing the game after Tielemans put the hosts in front after 10 minutes.

England looked more dangerous in the second half, but couldn’t convert either of a pair of free kicks just outside the area and Harry Kane saw a good chance from 15 yards away save by Belgium keeper Thibaut Courtois.

Belgium held on with few real alarms after that against an unimaginative England side and must now avoid defeat on Wednesday against Denmark, who beat Iceland 2-1, to finish top of the group.

A second successive defeat for England, after a home loss to Denmark, left them in third place in the group with one match to come at home to Iceland next week.

The result means Belgium have secured a spot in the Nations League finals.

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NATIONS LEAGUE: DIOGO JOTA SCORES BRACE AS PORTUGAL EASES PAST SWEDEN DESPITE RONALDO’S ABSENCE.

Goals from Bernardo Silva and a brace from Diogo Jota gave Portugal a comfortable 3-0 win over Sweden in the Nations League on Wednesday as the hosts cracked on despite the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo due to a positive COVID-19 test.

Ronaldo’s only contribution to the game was a post on Instagram around kickoff time urging on his teammates as he remained in quarantine, and they proved more than equal to the task.

William Carvalho could have given the home side the lead in the opening minutes but his header came back of a post and bounced away to safety, and Sweden’s defence struggled to deal with Portugal’s pace and precision.

Silva opened the scoring in the 21st minute as Portugal won the ball back in the middle of the field and quickly countered, with Jota firing a precise pass to Silva in the penalty area for a perfect first-time finish.

Marcus Berg went close to equalising for Sweden with a powerful shot which hit the post, but the more the Swedes attacked the more vulnerable they were to Portugal’s lightning-quick counter-attacks.

Jota got on the scoresheet just before half-time, lashing home Joao Cancelo’s cross from deep on the right to make it 2-0, and he added a superb third with a solo run and thumping shot in the 71st minute.

Sweden coach Janne Andersson will miss his side’s next Nations League game against Croatia following his second yellow card of the tournament, the 57-year-old showing his frustration with refereeing decisions that went against his team.

With 10 points from four games, Portugal top Group 2 in League A on goal difference ahead of France, who beat Croatia 2-1 in Zagreb. The Swedes are bottom of the group after slumping to four straight defeats.

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NATIONS LEAGUE: SPAIN, GERMANY FACE SET BACK IN GROUP 4.

Spain and Germany had setbacks in the Nations League on Tuesday, with Spain losing to Ukraine for the first time and Germany being held to a draw by last-place Switzerland.

Spain kept the group lead despite a 1-0 loss in Kiev in a match attended by about 15,000 fans.

Germany went two goals down in the first 30 minutes and could not manage more than a 3-3 draw against the Swiss in Cologne.

Spain has seven points from four matches, one point more than Germany and Ukraine, followed by Switzerland with two points.

In the final round in November, Spain visits Switzerland and then hosts Germany. Ukraine visits Germany and Switzerland.

Germany-Switzerland

Germany fought back to draw with Switzerland after another performance filled with errors.

Mario Gavranovic scored twice for the visitors, who led 2-1 at half-time after capitalising on sloppy defending and wayward passes by the hosts.

The Swiss were ahead 3-2 by the 57th minute before Serge Gnabry’s equaliser three minutes later.

“If you lead three times, you can win the game,” Switzerland goalkeeper Yann Sommer said.

“We played a very good first half, forced German mistakes and were efficient, which we were not in recent matches.

“In the end, they are still Germany. Too bad the result will not help us with Ukraine having won. We really wanted to beat Germany tonight.”

The game was played without fans because of rising coronavirus infections in the area.

Midfielder Toni Kroos made his 100th appearance with Germany.

Ukraine-Spain

Viktor Tsygankov scored shortly after coming off the bench in the second half to give Ukraine its first victory over La Roja.

The fans celebrated loudly as Tsygankov struck the net from outside the area after a through-ball by captain Andriy Yarmolenko, completing a counter-attack in the 76th minute.

It was Ukraine’s first goal against Spain in 17 years. Tsygankov entered the match about 10 minutes earlier.

“We had lost three games in a row and we owed an apology to our fans,” he said. “We missed them so much and we are happy to have given them a reason to celebrate tonight.”

Young sensations Ansu Fati and Adama Traore, touted as the future of Spain’s national team, were together in the starting line-up for the first time but could not help Spain to find the net.

They basically had one proper chance and scored it,” Spain midfielder Rodri said of Ukraine. “These are errors we need to learn from.

“It certainly wasn’t in our plans to lose here but we came to Kiev knowing it was a tough place to get a result.”

Ukraine goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan made several key saves to keep Spain scoreless for the first time in a Nations League match.

“We played with heart and absolute commitment,” Bushchan said. “We had to defend a lot and wait for our chance.

“Unfortunately, we can’t play from the position of strength against such top teams as Spain.”

Other results

Malta defeated Latvia 1-0 for its first away victory since 2013, with Steve Borg’s winning goal scored seven minutes into second-half injury time.

San Marino earned its first point since 2014 with a 0-0 draw at Liechtenstein, while the Faroe Islands defeated Andorra 2-0 and Luxembourg won 2-1 at Montenegro.

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UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE: ENGLAND BEAT BELGIUM AS PORTUGAL, ITALY MAINTAIN TOP SPOTS.

Portugal and Italy kept hold of first place in their UEFA Nations League groups on Sunday with goalless draws against France and Poland respectively on a night of little drama, while England saw off Belgium to take the initiative in their pool.

There was little to talk about at the Stade de France as a star-studded line-up of players including Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann failed to muster much of a spectacle in the League A, Group 3 match.

One-thousand fans gathered in the cavernous stadium just outside Paris to watch France host the reigning European champions, but were treated to just four shots on target as two rugged defenses cancelled out each team’s attacks.

“We didn’t score a goal, but we weren’t here to score goals,” said Portugal coach Fernando Santos. “France are a great team. They have great players. It’s not always possible to create opportunities.”

Pepe headed home what he thought was a 74th-minute opener when he got on the end of Bruno Fernandes’ free-kick but was flagged offside.

Ronaldo, chasing his 102nd international goal, was denied by a flying save from Hugo Lloris in added time.

Mbappe fluffed France’s best when Rui Patricio anticipated his gentle chip when one-on-one with the Portuguese stopper.

Both sides are now on seven points, four ahead of Croatia, whose 2-1 home win over Sweden earlier on Sunday was the group’s more entertaining match, with a calamitous late lapse from Pontus Jansson allowing the 2018 World Cup finalists to snatch the points in a soaking Zagreb.

Defender Jansson dawdled under a high ball into the penalty area with six minutes remaining and allowed Ivan Perisic to nip in behind. The Inter Milan winger then squared the ball for Andrej Kramaric to tap in from close range.

Sweden are stuck on no points after losing all three of their matches.

Elsewhere, Italy stretched their unbeaten streak to 18 matches and held onto top spot in League A, Group 1 with a stalemate in Gdansk.

New Juventus signing Federico Chiesa missed the chance to win the match for the dominant Azzurri from close range in the 11th minute.

Roberto Mancini’s side are one point ahead of the Netherlands, who also drew 0-0 with Bosnia and Herzegovina, ahead of their meeting in Bergamo on Wednesday.

England manager Gareth Southgate said his side showed what they were made of after coming from behind to beat Belgium 2-1 and move top of League A, Group 2 earlier on Sunday.

The Three Lions are on seven points, one ahead of the world’s top-ranked side after Marcus Rashford’s spot-kick and Mason Mount’s deflected winner 25 minutes from time cancelled out Romelu Lukaku’s early penalty.

“We are not going to face a more difficult game defensively,” said Southgate. “That is the beauty of the Nations League, you get games against this level of opponent.

“It’s a great experience for them and to go and win it, (it) should give them a sense of what might be possible in the next few years.”

Denmark are three points behind England in third after their simple 3-0 win over bottom side Iceland.

In League B, Erling Braut Haaland showed what the rescheduled Euro 2020 will be missing after he slammed home a hat-trick to help Norway to a 4-0 thrashing of Romania.

Haaland struck in the 13th, 64th and 74th minutes as Norway moved level on six points with group leaders Austria, 1-0 winners at Northern Ireland.

Norway were knocked out of the Euros playoffs by Serbia on Thursday.

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UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE: SPAIN SECURE SLIM VICTORY AGAINST SWITZERLAND TO REMAIN TOP OF GROUP A4; GERMANY, MONTENEGRO, LUXEMBOURG ALSO WIN

Spain strengthened their position at the top of Nations League Group A4 with a 1-0 win over Switzerland in Madrid.

The Swiss defence gifted Spain the game’s only goal in the 14th minute when Sergio Busquets latched onto a stray pass in the penalty area and Mikel Oyarzabal fired past Yann Sommer.

Spain went close again with a header by Manchester City’s Ferran Torres, which was palmed away by the Swiss keeper.

Wolves forward Adama Traore was sent on to make his competitive debut as the hour mark approached, but Spain could not conjure a second goal.

Germany battled to a 2-1 away win over Ukraine at the Olympic Stadium.

Borussia Monchengladbach defender Matthias Ginter put Germany in front in the 20th minute when he stabbed in a low cross from Antonio Rudiger on the right.

Ukraine goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan had produced some fine reaction stops, but his handling error saw Germany move 2-0 ahead early in the second half.

Lukas Klostermann floated a deep cross in from the right, which Bushchan spilled onto Leon Goretzka’s head and the ball dropped back into the net.

As the hour passed, Dynamo Kyiv winger Viktor Tsygankov shot straight at Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.

With 15 minutes left, Ukraine were awarded a penalty when Roman Yaremchuk was tripped by Niklas Sule, and Ruslan Malinovskyi converted to set up a tense finale.

Germany, though, saw out the closing stages to collect all three points, which moves them two behind Spain in second place.

Elsewhere on Saturday, in Group C1 Montenegro beat Azerbaijan 2-0 to maintain a 100 per cent record from three games.

Luxembourg beat Cyprus 2-0 with a first-half brace from Norwich midfielder Danel Sinani, who is on loan at Belgian club Waasland-Beveren.

Faroe Islands consolidated their position at the top of Group D1 with a 1-1 draw against Latvia in Torshavn, while it finished goalless between Andorra and Malta.

Elsewhere in Group 2, Gibraltar made it two wins from two with a 1-0 victory in Liechtenstein.