Football

Portugal runs rampant show against Luxembourg with record 9-0 margin despite playing without Cristiano Ronaldo

The Portuguese football team on Monday created history when they had their biggest-ever win in their football history. The team without its talisman Cristiano Ronaldo, swept aside Luxembourg with a 9-0 margin. This record-setting win for Portugal in a game of football was the biggest in terms of the margin of goals scored.

Portugal is in Group J for the Euro qualifiers and has won all 6 matches so far. The 2016 champions are grouped along with Slovakia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Luxembourg. Portugal have won all the games with 24 goals scored and none conceded so far.

Rampant Portugal shows no signs of mercy on Luxembourg

The 9-0 rout over Luxembourg began with a 12th-minute goal by Goncalo Ignacio. This was followed by Goncalo Ramos scoring 2 goals in the 17^th and 33^rd minute to put Portugal 3-0 ahead. Goncalo Ignacio then made it 4-0 in the 4^th minute of added time in the 1^st half.

The second half saw Roberto Martinez’s managed team totally annihilate the opposition’s defense. Diogo Jota made it 5-0 with a goal in the 57^th minute of the game and Ricardo Horta’s 67^th minute goal made it 6-0. Jota scored his 2^nd goal in the 77^th minute to make it 7-0.

The rout was complete when Bruno Fernandes scored in the 83^rd minute and Joao Felix made it 9-0 in the 88^th minute. Cristiano Ronaldo was missing the game because of his suspension due to amount of yellow cards he had received during the earlier games.

Portugal coach Roberto Martinez was beaming with delight as Portugal continued their dominance in Group J he said “It was a satisfactory aspect that, being 4-0 or 5-0 up, the team kept playing the same way as if it was 0-0, When you get that, it shows you the values of the players and that the respect toward the team is essential — that was really good to see.”

In other games played in the 6^th round, Kazakhstan beat Northern Ireland 1-0. Denmark took home 1-0 win over Finland, while Netherlands beat Ireland 2-1. Albania caused an upset by beating Poland 2-0, while Greece beat Gibraltar 5-0. Montenegro stunned Bulgaria 2-1 as Moldova, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Wales, Slovakia and Iceland registered wins. The final round of match-day six will witness Spain in action against Cyprus, while Italy take on Ukraine.