Portugal a step closer to World Cup finals
BUDAPEST: Portugal helped their chances of qualifying directly for next year’s World Cup when Andre Silva’s goal gave them a bruising 1-0 win away to Hungary, who played for an hour with 10 men on Sunday.
Silva headed in Cristiano Ronaldo’s pinpoint cross three minutes after halftime to give Portugal their seventh successive win in Group B, keeping them three points behind Switzerland who won 3-0 in Latvia to maintain their 100 percent record.
Hungary’s Tamas Priskin was shown a straight red card for elbowing Pepe, one of several nasty challenges in the match.
Portugal and Switzerland each have one game to play before a showdown in Lisbon on Oct. 10.
The winners of the nine European groups qualify directly for next year’s World Cup in Russia and the best eight teams play off for four more places.
Portugal never got into gear although the game could have gone very differently if they had taken one of several early chances.
Ronaldo had a powerful effort tipped over by Peter Gulacsi and then sent a header narrowly wide from Joao Moutinho’s inswinging cross before another effort went straight at the Hungary goalkeeper.
Priskin was sent off for elbowing Pepe as they jumped for the ball, leaving the former Real Madrid defender with a cut above his eye.
Mate Patkai had escaped with a yellow card in a similar incident with Moutinho a few minutes earlier.
The dismissal seemed to affect Portugal more than the hosts as they lost their rhythm.
But they broke through three minutes after halftime when a neat exchange of passes sent Ronaldo clear on the left and his perfect cross into the goalmouth was headed in by Silva from point blank range, the 21-year-old’s ninth international goal.
Belgium became the first European team to qualify for next year’s World Cup when a Romelu Lukaku header gave them a 2-1 win away to Greece with the goals coming in a five-minute second-half spell.
The win left Belgium with 22 points from eight games at the top of Group H, eight clear of Bosnia who won 4-0 away to Gibraltar. They each have two games to play.
Belgium were missing defender Vincent Kompany after he took a knock in the 9-0 win over Gibraltar on Thursday while Eden Hazard started on the bench.
Greece managed to stifle Belgium with a five-man defence in the first half and twice came close to scoring on the break.
Anastasios Donis surged forward from midfield and tested Thibaut Courtois, then Konstantinos Stafylidis produced a thumping drive which was heading for the top corner until the goalkeeper tipped it away.
Defender Jan Vertonghen gave Belgium the lead in the 70th minute with a left-foot drive into the bottom corner.
Belgium’s celebrations were cut short three minutes later when Greece’s Portugal-born Zeca side-footed home to equalise after Georgios Tzavelas sent over a pinpoint cross.
But one minute after that, Lukaku headed into the far corner after being picked out by Thomas Meunier.
Bosnia, beaten 3-2 away to Cyprus after squandering a two-goal lead on Thursday, took full advantage of the Greek defeat to reclaim second spot, with Edin Dzeko scoring twice against Gibraltar. – Reuters