10-man Portugal hold Poland
PARIS: Portugal finished off their successful Nations League group campaign with a 1-1 draw against Poland in Guimaraes on Tuesday, while Sweden earned promotion to the top division.
Hosts Portugal had already qualified for June’s inaugural Nations League finals alongside England, the Netherlands and Switzerland, while Poland could not avoid relegation.
Fernando Santos’ side finished three points clear of Italy at the top of Group A3, after an unbeaten campaign despite the absence of star forward and captain Cristiano Ronaldo.
Renato Sanches started brightly for Portugal and saw an early effort blocked, and the 21-year-old Bayern Munich midfielder created the opening goal as his 34th-minute corner was headed in at the near post by Andre Silva.
The European champions appeared to be in control, but the game changed when Danilo Pereira was harshly sent off and Poland were awarded a penalty.
The referee gave the Porto midfielder his marching orders after Arkadiusz Milik tumbled to the floor under his challenge, despite appearing to win the ball cleanly.
The Napoli striker picked himself up to slot the ball past Beto in the Portugal goal and level for the visitors with quarter of the match still remaining.
Poland have struggled since a disappointing World Cup group-stage exit, failing to win in the Nations League, and they wasted late chances, with Piotr Zielinski being denied by Beto and Damian Kadzior firing wide as the 10 men held on.
Elsewhere, Sweden pipped Russia to gain promotion to League A as a 2-0 victory over the 2018 World Cup hosts in Stockholm saw Janne Andersson’s men finish top of Group B2.
Manchester United centre-back Victor Lindelof smashed home a loose ball to put the hosts in front shortly before halftime, and Marcus Berg wrapped up the win with 18 minutes to play by tapping in after Sebastian Larsson’s shot was saved by Russia goalkeeper Andrey Lunev.
Fulham forward Aleksandar Mitrovic and Besiktas midfielder Adem Llajic both scored for the second consecutive game as Serbia brushed aside Lithuania 4-1 in Belgrade.
That saw them promoted from Group C4 despite closest challengers Romania’s 1-0 win in Montenegro.
SCOTS IN EURO 2020 PLAY-OFF
James Forrest scored a stunning hat-trick as Scotland overcame Israel 3-2 at Hampden Park to secure a Euro 2020 play-off spot and Nations League promotion on Tuesday.
Alex McLeish’s side needed victory to leapfrog the visitors to the top of Group C1 but former Celtic midfielder Beram Kayal stunned the home support in the ninth minute when he curled in a shot from distance.
Celtic winger Forrest, who had scored his first two Scotland goals in the 4-0 win over Albania on Saturday, notched twice in the first half before grabbing a third in the 64th minute from close range with another assured finish.
Midfielder Eran Zahavi reduced the deficit with a powerful drive in the 75th minute and in a nervy finish only a great save from Scotland goalkeeper Allan McGregor denied the visitors a late equaliser.
Scotland finished with nine points from 12 and can park their play-off fixture until March 2020 and concentrate on the traditional European Championship qualifiers, with the draw made on Dec 2 in Dublin.
Kosovo also sealed a Euro 2020 play-off place as Arber Zeneli scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 thrashing of Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
Heading into the game in Pristina, Kosovo knew a draw against unbeaten Azerbaijan would be enough to wrap up top spot in Group D3 and boost their Euro qualifying hopes.
But they got off to a dream start, with Heerenveen midfielder Zeneli putting them ahead in only the second minute.
The 23-year-old scored twice more in the second half, with Dinamo Zagreb defender Amir Rrahmani also finding the net, as Kosovo completed a famous win.
Kosovo will play at the League D playoffs next year, where Georgia, Belarus and Macedonia will be battling them for a ticket to the 2020 European Championship.