ANKARA
Portugal, minus Cristiano Ronaldo, thrashed Luxembourg 9-0 in a UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying group match Monday to secure a record victory.
Portuguese players Goncalo Inacio, Goncalo Ramos and Diogo Jota scored twice each against Luxembourg in a Group J game in Portugal’s Estadio Algarve in Faro-Loule.
Ricardo Horta, Bruno Fernandes and Joao Felix added one goal each to help Portugal take their biggest-ever win.
Group J leaders Portugal have won all six of their matches to have 18 points. They scored 24 goals but conceded none.
Second-place Slovakia have 13 points after beating Liechtenstein 3-0 in Bratislava.
In the next match on Oct. 13, Portugal will host Slovakia in Porto.
Luxembourg, who took a heavy loss Monday evening, are in third position with 10 points and will look for a mistake by Slovakia in the next matchdays but must win at Iceland first.
Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland have six points each to be quite desperate for the best two spots in the group.
Liechtenstein lost all six of their matches to sit at the bottom of the group.
Croatia top Group D with Armenia win
Andrej Kramaric scored the winner in the first half as Croatia beat Armenia 1-0 in Yerevan to go to the top of Group D, which was previously led by Türkiye.
Croatia and Türkiye have 10 points each to battle for the top position in the group.
The Croatians have a game in hand.
In the next fixture on Oct. 12, Türkiye will visit Croatia in Osijek. A Luka Modric-led Croatia beat Türkiye 2-0 in the first match in the western Turkish province of Bursa.
Armenia and Wales have seven points each in the group. Latvia do not have any points after losing five matches.
Monday’s results:
Group D
Armenia – Croatia: 0-1
Latvia – Wales: 0-2
Group J
Iceland – Bosnia Herzegovina: 1-0
Portugal – Luxembourg: 9-0
Slovakia – Liechtenstein: 3-0
