European champions Spain on Tuesday sealed their place in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Serbia, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal were frustrated in a 0-0 draw with Scotland.
Spain, who are also the reigning Nations League champions, became the second team to clinch a quarter-finals spot as they followed in the footsteps of Germany by moving to 10 points from a possible 12 in Group A4.
Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, the two wing stars of Spain’s triumphant Euro campaign, were not involved against Serbia on a rainy night in the Andalusian city of Cordoba.
Photo: AP
Yet that did not matter as La Roja went ahead through Aymeric Laporte’s early header and then shook off Alvaro Morata’s penalty miss at the beginning of the second half.
Captain Morata made it 2-0 with a lovely finish on 65 minutes and Alex Baena, who featured at the Euros before starring in the Spain team who won Olympic gold, made it 3-0 from a free-kick.
Serbia finished with 10 men after defender Strahinja Pavlovic was sent off.
Photo: AP
“We’re in another final phase, which is the important thing — it might seem easy, but we’re in all of these final phases in recent years, and that deserves credit,” Morata told state broadcaster TVE.
Denmark are best placed to go through with Spain after they drew 2-2 away to Switzerland, who prop up the group.
Portugal dropped points for the first time in Group A1 as they were forced to settle for a share of the spoils with Scotland at Hampden.
Photo: EPA-EFE
On his 216th international appearance, Ronaldo made his 200th start for his country, more than 21 years since his first.
However, the 39-year-old failed to add to his 133 Portugal goals and stormed off the field at fulltime ranting at the officials.
The home side needed a wonder save from goalkeeper Craig Gordon to deny Bruno Fernandes a winner for Portugal in the closing stages, but held out to secure their first point in the top tier of the Nations League.
That allowed them to end a run of four straight competitive defeats, but they have now won just once — in a friendly against Gibraltar — in their past 16 matches.
“Their goalkeeper was incredible. We couldn’t get a goal, but the performance was positive,” Portugal coach Roberto Martinez told UEFA.com. “Results are a consequence of performances and, tonight, we deserved to win.”
Croatia are second in the group behind Portugal after playing out a thrilling 3-3 draw with Poland in Warsaw, in a match that had five first-half goals.
In the third-tier League C, Northern Ireland went top of Group 3 with a 5-0 win over Bulgaria in Belfast.
Isaac Price of Standard de Liege in Belgium was the hero with a hat-trick, as the 21-year-old became the country’s youngest-ever scorer of three goals in a game.
Belarus and Luxembourg drew 1-1 in the same group, while in Group C2 Kosovo beat visiting Cyprus 3-0, Romania won 2-1 against Lithuania and Belarus drew 1-1 with Luxembourg.
Additional reporting by AP
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