Key events
Here’s the World Cup roundup from today’s Uefa action. More to follow on Sunday.
Francesco Pio Esposito on his first ever Italy goal: “It all happened so fast, but it has to be a starting point. I don’t like to rest on my laurels.”
Fellow scorer Mateo Retegui: ““I hope to continue like this, it was a good game, especially the first half. If the result had been a little different at half-time, then so would’ve been the second half, but it was decent anyway. I’m so proud to be here, I hope to continue helping the team and winning games.”
“I am sorry for Moise [Kean], hopefully it is nothing serious, I talked to him in the locker room. I combined well with Pio too, we have so many talented players who can work together, including Scamacca, Lucca, Raspadori, so we’ve all got to keep going and let the coach choose,” noted Retegui.
More Heimir: “When you waste so much time defending, maybe the decision making in attack isn’t the best. There was no passengers in this game, instead of picking out individuals, everyone did their job so well tonight.
Taking off Seamus Coleman for John Egan proved key to the goal. “He said he could have finished it (the game); it was just signals we saw, they were attacking so much on the left side. For us, there was always going to be changes, even to give him a rest, we have another very important game in three days against Armenia.”
Heimir Halmgrimsson spoke to RTE: “It was a good team performance, a lot of energy into this match, defending mostly. And we knew that we were gonna we were gonna need to defend. We did it quite well, I think, for most of the time, we obviously, when we got tired, they got a little bit more time on the ball, and these players have the quality to find the perfect passes, as you saw, in the goal. We gave them too much time to run into space and find the killer pass.
“I would say we should be proud of the performance and not happy, but we should be proud of the performances, a lot of good things to take away from this much.”
Tony Mason gets back in touch to remind that after that Albania win “a win for England in Riga now and it is qualification.”
Ruben Neves, the scorer in Lisbon, wore the No 21 shirt that his friend, Diogo Jota, once wore.
Jake O’Brien spoke to RTE: “It’s very disappointing, I think the lads dug in for nearly the whole game. I think with how much we dug in, we deserved a point, that’s going to really hurt us. Playing against teams like this you have to stay focused for the whole time, I think for just a small moment, we switched off, and they got their moment.”
Niall Mullen gets in touch: “Ah my beloved Irish moral victory, how I’ve missed you.”
Tony Mason gets in touch: “Only game with remaining jeopardy? Don’t you know Serbia are playing Albania?”
I should have said: that I had access to other than the scoreline; I was watching the other three all at once. That’s a huge win for Albania.
Saturday Uefa qualifiers scores
Group K
Latvia 2-2 Andorra
Serbia 0-1 Albania
Group E
Bulgaria 1-6 Turkey
Spain 2-0 Georgia
Group F
Hungary 2-0 Armenia
Portugal 1-0 Rep of Ireland
Group I
Estonia 1-3 Italy
Norway 5-0 Israel FT
Full-time: Portugal 1-0 Ireland
So close for Ireland, and such pain as Ruben Neves scored in time added on. The Irish are not out of it just yet, and were much improved but it’s all on their remaining games. The Slovakian referee is confronted by Heimir Hallgrímsson. Caoimhin Kelleher was one of the heroes, saving from Ronaldo but that ended up so cruel.
Full-time: Estonia 1-3 Italy
A nice, clean win for Italy aside from the mistake from Donnarumma. Moises Kean scored but then had to be taken off with injury. Mateo Retegui made up for a penalty miss, and a first Azzurri goal from Francesco Pio Esposito.
Full-time: Spain 2-0 Georgia
Three wins from three for Spain, Pino and Oyarzabal scoring the goals in a match they dominated. It might have been more had it not been for Giorgi Mamardashvili, the Liverpool keeper.
Goal! Bulgaria 0-1 Turkey (Kahveci, 90+3)
Portugal 1-0 Ireland
That was cruel for Ireland, Heimir Hallgrímsson is furious in his dugout, watching the goal back. Rafael Leao almost kills it off from Ronaldo’s layoff as Ireland leave space as they try and attack.
Goal! Portugal 1-0 Ireland (Neves, 90+1)
The game ticks into added time, and just as it seems that Ireland are holding on, Trincao loops a cross to Ruben Neves, who breaks his international drought by heading home. Kelleher is caught in no-man’s land.
Portugal 0-0 Ireland
Ronaldo is still on, and it takes an Egan toe-end to stop him in his tracks. Next, Trincao makes a mess of a shot.
Portugal 0-0 Ireland
This is the game with remaining jeopardy from the evening. Josh Cullen is booked and he will not be able to face Armenia on Tuesday.
Portugal 0-0 Ireland
Ireland struggling to hold the ball, sub Will Smallbone losing possession. Liam Manning has just been booked. The Slovakian referee will be the focus of post-match attention. Off goes the veteran Seamus Coleman for the returning John Egan.
Stephen G gets in touch: “How was that a penalty?! Hit his chest at a pelt and we didn’t see it reviewed on tv enough. Happy Kelleher has the Zlatan King – Fu kick in reserve but VAR needs to be binned or have it’s own VAR system to review awful decisions.”
Spain 2-0 Georgia
In Elche, the big news is that Georgia have just had their first shot. Utter dominance from Spain.
Goal! Estonia 1-3 Italy (Rauno Sappinen, 73)
A horror show from Donnarumma, he tries to catch a cross, and drops it at the feet of Rauno Sappinen, the Estonian striker.
Goal! Estonia 0-3 Italy (Francesco Esposito, 74)
It’s a lovely finish from Inter’s 20-year-old, set up by a cross from Leonardo Spinazzola, and slashed home. That’s his first goal for his country.
Portugal 0-0 Ireland
Ireland’s hero flaps at a corner aimed as Dias and can only watch it drift by. Off goes Evan Ferguson, who saw very little of the ball. Ogbene goes off.
Penalty saved by Ireland’s Kelleher
Ronaldo takes it, and takes a deep breath. Kelleher spreads himself wide, and with his boot smashes away a kick that was aimed down the centre! Justice done!
Penalty to Portugal!
Who did it hit? Nathan Collins is complaining. It came off Darragh O’Shea’s chest. What will the Slovakian ref be guided towards?
Portugal 0-0 Ireland
Close. Semedo lays up Ronaldo but the great man misses.
Charles Antaki gets in touch: “There was a lot of walking football played in that first half of the Spain-Georgia game, all of it played by Spain, and with a correspondingly treacle-like response from the opposition. You wait for the viper-like strike – it did happen once – but otherwise you might as well put on some trance music. More from Pedri please.”
“Beautifully struck by Oyarzabal, for sure, but the award of a free kick for a handball was grotesque. The Georgian player in the wall put his arm across his face for protection and it hit him somewhere around the elbow. If he hadn’t had it there he’d have got a broken nose at least. What could be a more natural position than one to protect yourself against that?”
Goal! Bulgaria 1-5 Turkey (Zeki Celik 65)
Goal! Spain 2-0 Georgia (Oyarzabal, 64)
The La Real man lashes a free-kick with his left foot. Mamardashvili had no chance. Oyarzabal is immediately replaced after his latest goal; he’s a player in form. On comes Borja Iglesias. Pino, the other scorer is replaced by Alex Baena.
