Portugal overcome Cristiano Ronaldo's COVID19 absence, beat Sweden in UEFA Nations League Cup

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 made light of 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 team mates 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 pinpoint pass to Silva in the penalty area for a perfect first-time finish.

 

 

 

 

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É como se estivesse aí! Vamos Malta! Força Portugal#todosportugal

A post shared by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) on Oct 14, 2020 at 11:44am PDT

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 halftime, 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.

Scotland make historic progress

Scotland closed in on promotion to the top tier of the Nations League on Wednesday after winning their top-of-the-table clash with the Czech Republic as the races in the other three League B groups remained extremely tight.

An early Ryan Fraser goal was enough to edge the Scots past their nearest rivals and open up a four-point lead at the top of Group 2, with a single point still separating the top sides in Groups 3 and 4, and Austria and Norway neck and neck in Group 1.

Fraser was a constant threat all night against the Czechs at Hampden Park and struck the decisive blow after just six minutes when target man Lyndon Dykes poked a precise ball through for the Newcastle United attacker to slot home neatly.  Matej Vydra wasted a good first-half chance to equalise for the visitors but Fraser could have made it two just after the half hour but fired over when his pace was too much for the Czech defence.