Spain held as Ronaldo scores 900th goal in Portugal’s victory over Croatia

Spain were held by Serbia in the UEFA Nations League on Thursday in their first game since winning Euro 2024, while Cristiano Ronaldo reached another milestone by scoring his 900th career goal as Portugal beat Croatia.

Eight of Spain’s starting line-up in their Euro 2024 final victory over England almost two months ago were on the field at kick-off against Serbia in Belgrade.

Among them was Lamine Yamal, with the Barcelona prodigy just one of the Spain players to be denied by home goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic.

Luis de la Fuente’s team are also the reigning Nations League champions having won the most recent edition of the tournament last year.

They will now hope to register their first victory in League A, Group 4 when they travel to face Switzerland in Geneva on Sunday.

The Swiss lost 2-0 to Denmark on Thursday, with Patrick Dorgu and captain Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scoring late goals for the home side in Copenhagen.

Switzerland finished the match with nine men as both Nico Elvedi and Granit Xhaka were sent off in the second half.

In Lisbon, Ronaldo’s 900th career goal proved to be the winner as 2019 Nations League champions Portugal edged Croatia 2-1 in Group A1.

Ronaldo, 39, put behind him a disappointing Euro 2024 in which he failed to score as he turned in a Nuno Mendes cross in the 34th minute at the Estadio da Luz to reach the landmark.

He appeared emotional as he celebrated the goal, his 131st in a Portugal shirt. Half of his goals were scored for Real Madrid, with the remainder spread across his spells at Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United and current club Al-Nassr.

Diogo Dalot’s goal had put Portugal in front early on before Ronaldo netted, with a Dalot own-goal reducing the deficit before the break.

It means a lot,” Ronaldo said. “It was a milestone I wanted to reach for a long time. I knew I would reach this number, because as I continue to play, it would happen naturally.”

Ronaldo and Modric, the former Real Madrid teammates, are nearing the end of their careers but are still going strong with their national teams. Modric will turn 39 on Monday.

“It was emotional because it’s a milestone,” he said. “It seems like any other milestone, but only I know, and the people around me, how hard it is to work every day, to be physically and psychologically fit, to score 900 goals. It’s a unique milestone in my career.”

Portugal next host Scotland, who lost 3-2 to Poland at Hampden Park, with the visitors grabbing the victory thanks to a 97th-minute Nicola Zalewski penalty.

Poland had been 2-0 up as Sebastian Szymanski gave them an early lead and captain Robert Lewandowski added a penalty just before the break.

However, Billy Gilmour pulled one back for League A newcomers Scotland moments after the restart, and Scott McTominay equalised before Roma’s Zalewski sneaked his spot-kick under Angus Gunn deep into stoppage time.

Elsewhere, there were wins for Slovakia and Northern Ireland in League C, while Sweden -- now being coached by Jon Dahl Tomasson -- beat Azerbaijan 3-1 away in Baku with Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak netting twice.

History was made in League D as San Marino, the world’s worst team according to the FIFA rankings, beat Liechtenstein 1-0 to claim their first ever competitive win.

The tiny country of barely 30,000 people, surrounded by Italy, came into the match at their San Marino Stadium looking for a first win of any sort since beating Liechtenstein in a friendly in 2004.

Liechtenstein had a goal disallowed for a tight offside in the first half before San Marino pounced on a defensive error to grab the winner in the 53rd minute through Nicko Sensoli.

Aged 19, he had not been born when the team who sit 210th and last in the world rankings last won a game.

The European qualifying groups for the 2026 World Cup will be drawn in Zurich in December, likely with seedings decided by FIFA world rankings updated in November after Nations League group play ends.

Agencies