Austria survives Belgian rush, Portugal stays on EC course

Belgium has encountered its first points loss in European Championship qualification. Indeed, it failed to win for the first time under the reign of national coach Domenico Tedesco.

Austria held firm in the King Baudouin Stadium (1-1) despite a rush by the Belgians. In extra time, Youri Tielemans even curled the ball against the crossbar.

Extremely unlucky, the Red Devils went behind midway through the first half, when defender Orel Mangala changed direction on a volley by Michael Gregoritsch, leaving goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois nailed to the ground.

After an hour, Romelu Lukaku restored the balance, but Belgium’s all-time top scorer was also unlucky a few times with his powerful shots from distance. Mike Trésor made his debut in the closing stages, a former player of NEC and Willem II, among others.

At Portugal, meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo was playing his 199th international game, but the striker was unable to grace it with a goal against Bosnia and Herzegovina. In spite of this, the team won the match comfortably (3-0).

Bosnia bit off hard and could have taken the lead through veteran Edin Dzeko as well, but a great chance for the 0-1 (volley) went over. At the other end, Ronaldo saw a hard header goal disallowed for offside.

Thanks to Bernardo Silva and twice Bruno Fernandez, the victory was then still secured by the Portuguese, who, with nine points from three games and a goal difference of 13-0, generously lead their group.

After three barely game days in this European Championship qualifier, among the countries that have been regulars at the major tournaments in recent years, Iceland has the most problems.

Former Eredivisie top scorer Alfred Finnbogason (ex-Heerenveen) did equalize with a penalty, but Tomas Suslov of relegated FC Groningen gave Slovakia the three points in Reykjavik (1-2).

Iceland, with three points from three games, has only Liechtenstein below them in its pool.

Václav Cerny, who is on his way from FC Twente to VfL Wolfsburg, scored two goals for the Czech Republic against the Faroe Islands (0-3).