At the beginning of European Championship qualification, England and Portugal each won
their opening two games, boosted by their great players continuing their historically long
winning streaks.
In a 2-0 victory over Ukraine, Harry Kane scored his record-tying 55th goal for his nation,
and Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in his 198th game for Portugal in a 6-0 victory over Luxembourg.
Slovenia, which defeated San Marino 2-0, was the other nation with a flawless start to
qualifying for Euro 2024 after two games.
Italy, the defending champion, defeated Malta 2-0 to earn its first victory of the qualifying
round.
KANE CONTINUES Wayne Rooney was surpassed by him to become England’s all-time leading scorer with
Kane maintained his record streak at Wembley by converting his penalty in Thursday’s 2-1
victory over Italy in Naples.
In the 37th minute of the Group C match, the England captain scored by converting Bukayo
Saka’s cross at the far post.
Three minutes later, Saka rightfully added to his tally by turning on the edge of the box and
curling a shot into the top corner.
Mateo Retegui scored once more as Italy triumphed in Malta to avenge its opening loss to
England.
The attacker, who was born in Argentina and holds Italian citizenship through his maternal
grandmother, headed in a corner in the 15th minute to give the Azzurri the lead.
In his first two competitive international games, Retegui became the first Italian player to
score in over 55 years.
As Matteo Pessina knocked in Emerson’s low cross in the 27th minute, the Azzurri had
doubled their lead.
THE DOUBLE RONALD
Ronaldo increased his career total for Portugal to 122 goals in 198 games, making him the
all-time leading scorer in men’s soccer.
In a resounding victory for the 2016 champions in Luxembourg, Ronaldo, 38, opened the
scoring and scored his team’s fourth goal soon after the half-hour mark.
Portugal scored more goals through Joo Félix, Bernardo Silva, and substitutes Otavio and
Rafael Leo.
Aron Gunnarsson scored three goals in the second half to help Iceland defeat Liechstein 7-0
and Slovakia defeat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 in Group J.
HJLUND, FIVE-STAR
Rasmus Hjlund added two more goals to his already remarkable start to his international
career, but he was unable to stop Denmark from shockingly losing Kazakhstan defeats, 3-2.
Hojlund added two more goals in the first half to give Denmark the lead after opening the
scoring against Finland on Thursday with a hat trick.
Nevertheless, Askhat Tagybergen and Baktiyor Zainutdinov each scored from the penalty
spot to draw even before Abat Aimbetov startled everyone with the game-winning goal in the final minute.
