Ronaldo saves Portugal the blushes Friday, August 24, 2007
Cristiano Ronaldo saved Portugal from an embarrassing defeat in Armenia while Belgium dented Serbia's hopes of reaching Euro 2008 with a 3-2 qualifying win.
The World Cup semi-finalists fell behind early and needed a 37th-minute goal from Ronaldo to earn a 1-1 draw in group A on Wednesday. "The draw is a logical result for the match," Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said. "We definitely came here to win, but Armenia played quality soccer."
Wednesday's six qualifiers involved teams in group A where dropped points by Portugal and Serbia enabled Finland to move above them on the table with a 2-1 win at home to Kazakhstan.
Portugal found themselves a goal down in the 10th minute when Armenia's Robert Arzumanyan headed in a corner.
But Manchester United winger Ronaldo calmed the visitors' nerves when he robbed an opponent and jinked his way into the penalty area before sliding the ball into the net.
Serbia fared worse in Belgium where two goals from Moussa Dembele and another from Kevin Mirallas gave the hosts a 3-2 win. Finland went second with goals from Alexei Eremenko jnr and Teemu Tainio helping them beat Kazakhstan.
Northern Ireland jumped above Spain into second place in group F with a 3-1 win over Liechtenstein, with Fulham striker David Healy scoring twice to take his goal tally to 11, four more than any other player. The win lifted the Irish to within two points of leaders Sweden.
