On Monday, Portugal cruised to a record 9-0 victory over Luxembourg in Euro 2024 qualifying. Bruno Fernandes was the architect of Portugal’s dominating performance.match in which suspended talisman and career goalscoring leader Cristiano Ronaldo will not participate.
The team coached by Roberto Martinez has already won all six of their qualifying games. Not only have they not conceded a single goal, but they have also scored 24 goals for themselves, making this the country’s most comprehensive victory ever.
Portugal are currently in first place in Group J’s standings, five points ahead of Slovakia, who are in second place after Portugal’s victory over Slovakia in Bratislava on Friday. Luxembourg is in third place, trailing Slovakia by three points.
Fernandes, who plays for Manchester United and scored the game-winning goal for Portugal in their match against Slovakia, set up three other goals for the Selecao while also scoring one of his own.
Ricardo Horta and Joao Felix also found the back of the net, in addition to Goncalo Ramos, Diogo Jota, and Goncalo Inacio, who all scored twice.
Martinez, who took over as head coach following the World Cup in Qatar and replaced Fernando Santos, has a perfect record since taking over the helm.
“We are still at the beginning of a new era with a new coach and we are still taking on board the coach’s ideas,” said Jota. “We are still taking into account the coach’s ideas.”
“Today, we are going to set a reference point match for (to look at in) the future.”
In the 12th minute, Sporting Lisbon defender Inacio gave the home team the lead by heading in Fernandes’ superb cross with the outside of his foot. This put Sporting Lisbon in the driver’s seat.
Ramos, the striker for Paris Saint-Germain, hammered home the second goal five minutes later after Fernandes had rushed high to gain back possession of the ball.
After that, the striker, who is 22 years old and plays for his country, scored another goal in the 33rd minute with a deft turn and a polished finish for his sixth goal in eight matches for his country.
At the Algarve stadium close to the country’s south coast, Portugal dominated while Liverpool striker Jota came close to scoring a goal by hitting the crossbar.
Jota scored the game’s fifth goal just a few minutes into the second half, and it was set up by the Red Devils midfielder Fernandes once more. Inacio scored his second goal by heading in a cross from Fernandes just before the halftime break.
Horta scored their sixth goal of the night from the edge of the box to match the haul as Portugal defeated Luxembourg 6-0 in their first match played in the Grand Duchy.
Jota, who was responsible for setting up Horta, hammered home the seventh as Portugal continued to push on without remorse, and Fernandes closed off his virtuosic effort by scoring the eighth goal.
That tied their previous best win, which they had achieved on three separate times when they won 8-0. However, Portugal’s new record was set when substitute Felix scored an outstanding ninth goal from the edge of the box.
“We have a great group of players, and we take every game very seriously,” said Horta. “Every game is a big deal for us.”
“We are making progress, but there are still some areas in which we can excel. up the match against Slovakia, we turned up a performance that was not representative of what this team is capable of.
On October 13, Martinez’s team has a chance to qualify for Euro 2024 if they win their match against Slovakia and Luxembourg fails to win their match against Iceland.