Although they were already eligible, the Portuguese did not travel as tourists to Liechtenstein on Thursday evening. on the contrary. Roberto Martinez’s men were on a (double) mission on the turf of the Rheinpark Stadium in Vaduz: to become the first Portuguese team to complete their qualifying matches with an unblemished record – that is, ten wins out of ten – and allow Cristiano Ronaldo to finish as the top scorer in European Championship qualifying at the age of 38. As surprising as it may seem, this would also be historic at the end of his fifth campaign.
But what was true in practice was to see Liechtenstein manage to keep Portugal under control in the first half. CR7 quickly corrected this anomaly upon his return from the locker room. Only 18 seconds after the start of the second half, the Seleção captain finally opened the scoring with a left-footed shot under the crossbar (47).
His ninth goal in these qualifiers allows him to move back one step behind Romelu Lukaku (10 goals in 7 matches). But the Belgian striker did not join the top scorers in these qualifiers, so much so that Cristiano Ronaldo was replaced shortly after the hour mark.
Portugal could have finished with a 100% Parisian goal. After a free kick taken by the returning Vitinha, Gonzalo Ramos, who had been disappointing until then, took the ball three times and fired it deep (82nd minute). The goal was finally disallowed by VAR after 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 stage.
