Haaland scores but Norway loses to Scotland, Portugal wins in Euro qualifying
By James Ellingworth, The Associated Press on June 17, 2023.
Erling Haaland scored on his return to Norway and it wasn’t enough as Scotland came back to win 2-1 on Saturday and keep a perfect record in qualifying for next year’s European Championship. Elsewhere, Bruno Fernandes scored twice in a 3-0 win for Portugal against Bosnia-Herzegovina as Cristiano Ronaldo played his 199th international game, and Belgium drew with Austria 1-1 without the injured Kevin de Bruyne. GROUP A After beating Norway 2-1, Scotland is the group leader with aims of qualifying for back-to-back European Championships for the first time since 1996. Haaland opened the scoring for Norway from the penalty spot in the 61st minute but when he was substituted, Scotland seized the lead with two goals in two minutes. Haaland was brought down by defender Ryan Porteous as they vied to meet an incoming cross from Alexander Sorloth. Haaland hit the resulting penalty hard into the bottom left corner for his first goal in six games for club and country since his 35th English Premier League goal against Everton on May 14. Norway coach Stale Solbakken took off Haaland in the 84th and Scotland scored three minutes later. Defender Leo Skiri Ostigard tried to intercept a Scottish pass but his touch was heavy and Lyndon Dykes hit the loose ball past goalkeeper Orjan Nyland. Two minutes after that, Scotland took the lead when Dykes passed for substitute Kenny McLean to score his first Scotland goal since 2019. Defeat dealt a heavy blow to Norway’s chances of qualifying from Group A after the team stumbled with one point from its first two games when Haaland was injured in March. It was his first international game since September. Spain has three points from two games, including a loss to Scotland, and did not play on Saturday because it is contesting the Nations League final with Croatia on Sunday. Georgia beat Cyprus 2-1. GROUP E Vaclav Cerny scored twice as the Czech Republic beat the Faroe Islands 3-0 to stretch its lead at the top of the group to four points. Albania leapt from the bottom of the group to third by beating Moldova 2-0 and was level on points with second-placed Poland, which didn’t play on Saturday. GROUP F Belgium fought back to draw with Austria 1-1 thanks to an equalizing goal from Romelu Lukaku after a deflected shot from Michael Gregoritsch gave the Austrians the lead. Lukaku was playing as captain in the absence of de Bruyne, who played through a hamstring injury toward the end of the season for Manchester City but had to go off during last week’s Champions League final. Belgium could have won the game when Youri Tielemans hit a shot against the crossbar in added time. Austria stayed top of the group, three points ahead of Belgium, but has played one more game. Azerbaijan drew with Estonia 1-1. GROUP G With group leader Serbia not in action, second-place Hungary had a chance to go top but fell short in a 0-0 draw with Montenegro. Lithuania held on for a 1-1 draw with Bulgaria despite having been reduced to 10 men thanks to a 17th-minute red card. GROUP J Portugal has three wins from three games after Fernandes set up Bernardo Silva for the first goal in the 3-0 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina and then scored twice himself. Ronaldo played the full game for his 199th cap and can next aim to be the first men’s international player to 200 appearances when Portugal plays Iceland on Tuesday. He didn’t score on Saturday but had a headed goal disallowed for offside and the game was briefly stopped when a fan ran onto the field to hug him. Portugal has 13 goals and has yet to concede any in European Championship qualifying. Slovakia was two points behind in second place after beating Iceland 2-1 and Luxembourg rose to third after it beat Liechtenstein 2-0. ___ AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports 26-25
