Ukraine 2-1 Portugal
Cristiano Ronaldo reached yet another historic milestone in Portugal’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Ukraine. The Portuguese legend scored his 700th career goal, becoming just the sixth player ever to achieve the feat.
However, Ukraine put a damper on Ronaldo’s memorable night as they scored a 2-1 home win. With that victory, they became the fifth team to secure their spot in the finals.
After their Nations League triumph, the reigning European champions are once again making a bit of a hash out of qualifying. They are still one point ahead of Serbia for that second automatic qualifying spot in Group B.
While the Euro 2020 odds still have Portugal among the favourites to win the tournament, they still have to make sure they’re in it in the wake of this latest setback.
Highlights of the game
The hosts wasted very little time to get things going as they produced the first shot of the match after just 70 seconds. Ruslan Malinovskiy’s ball found Roman Yaremchuk, whose effort was on target but was comfortably saved by Portugal keeper Rui Patricio.
The Portuguese had their first sight of goal on five minutes off a set piece. Cristiano Ronaldo’s free-kick found Danilo Pereira, but the midfielder’s header flew way over the bar.
The Ukrainians had a set piece of their own just a minute later, which they executed to perfection and led to the opening goal. Rui Patricio did well to save Sergey Krivtsov’s header from a Ukraine corner, but he could only push it into the path of Yaremchuk, who reacted quickly to tap the ball into the net.
The hosts would then double their lead on 27 minutes. Vitalii Mykolenko did brilliant work on the left wing as he supplied a wonderful cross to Andriy Yarmolenko, who coolly slotted past Rui Patricio.
Now two goals down, the Portuguese began to ramp up the pressure. Joao Mario forced a save from Andriy Pyatov, while Pereira’s shot went over the bar. Ronaldo’s thunderous strike from also outside the box also flew over.
The Ukrainians very nearly caught Portugal out with a sucker punch just before half-time. Their chance on the counterattack fell to Yarmolenko, but the veteran forward was unable to find the target this time around.
Onto the second half, Ronaldo continued his assault on the Ukraine goal. Within the first seven minutes, he forced two Pyatov saves off a free-kick and another shot from the edge of the box.
The Portugal pressure finally paid off as they won a penalty for handball. It was quite a harsh decision as Taras Stepanenko couldn’t do much about the ball hitting his arm after he had blocked a Portugal shot. And to make matters even worse, he was also handed a second yellow card, sending the hosts down to 10 men.
Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo stepped up to take the penalty, which he coolly converted to notch his historic 700th career goal. But there was no trademark celebration as Portugal still trailed.
Ronaldo went in search of that equaliser right away as he forced yet another save from Pyatov. But despite all of their efforts in the final few minutes, the Portuguese couldn’t come up with another goal to earn a share of the spoils.
Key statistics
Ronaldo joins Austrian Josef Biscan (805), Pele (779), Romario (748), Ferenc Puskas (709) and Gerd Muller (701) as the only players ever to score at least 700 career goals.
Ronaldo was absolutely brilliant in the match as he had 10 shots by his own, with six on target. The Portuguese, who were forced to go and attack for most of the match, had 59 per cent of possession and had 24 shots in total (10 on target).
Meanwhile, Roman Yaremchuk continues his fine form for Ukraine. He has now scored four goals in his last six appearances for his country.
Since drawing with Portugal in Lisbon to begin their qualifying campaign, Ukraine’s Euro 2020 results have been outstanding. Andriy Shevchenko’s side have won their last six qualifiers, which includes a terrific 5-0 thrashing of Serbia.
What’s next?
Portugal are likely to be heavily favoured by the SBOBET odds in their next two Euro 2020 qualifiers next month, which should result in relatively straightforward wins. They host Lithuania, whom they beat 5-1 away in September, before travelling to minnows Luxembourg.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s next assignment will be a friendly against Estonia, which will serve as a warm-up for their qualifying matchup away to Serbia.
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