PORTO, Portugal — Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat trick to move past Pele on the list of all-time international goalscorers as Portugal beat Faeroe Islands 5-1 Thursday to stay close to Switzerland at the top of Group B in World Cup European qualifying.
Ronaldo netted with a neat volley from inside the area then added two other goals to surpass the Brazil great and move into second place on the list of Europe’s all-time scorers with 78 goals. He’s six behind Hungary great Ferenc Puskas.
Pele scored 77 goals for Brazil.
Switzerland stayed perfect in qualifying by defeating Andorra 3-0 in a match interrupted by poor pitch conditions under heavy rain in St. Gallen.
The Swiss reached 21 points, three more than second-placed Portugal, and is guaranteed to finish first or second in the group. The winner automatically qualifies for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, while the runner-up has to go through a playoff.
Hungary stayed a distant third with 10 points after defeating last-placed Latvia 3-1 at home.
Ronaldo scored twice in the first half and once after the break to reach 14 goals in seven Group B matches.
The Real Madrid striker opened the scoring with a side-volley by the far post. He added his second by converting a penalty kick, and the third came after a neat fake shot that fooled a defender and left him open in front of the goal.
William Carvalho and Nelson Oliveira also scored for the defending European champions, which have won six straight matches since their opening loss at Switzerland.
Switzerland overcame poor pitch conditions in St. Gallen to defeat Andorra for its seventh straight victory in Group B.
The match was interrupted in each half as workers came on the field to clear standing water.
Haris Seferovic scored just before halftime and again after the break, and Stephan Lichtsteiner added the final goal for the 3-0 victory.
Hungary kept pace with Switzerland and Portugal thanks to a routine 3-1 win over last-placed Latvia.
Tamas Kadar and Adam Szalai scored for Hungary in the first half and Balazs Dzsudzsak added the third following the break after Gints Freimanis had pulled Latvia closer before halftime.
The victory left Hungary five points clear of fourth-placed Faeroe Islands.
France routs Netherlands to regain control of Group A
SAINT-DENIS, France — France regained control of its World Cup destiny with a comfortable 4-0 win against the Netherlands in Group A on Thursday, damaging Dutch hopes of qualification and moving Les Bleus three points clear of Sweden after it lost 3-2 at Bulgaria.
Antoine Griezmann’s 17th international goal set France on its way in the first half, and Monaco attacking midfielder Thomas Lemar’s first two international goals after the break secured victory against a shoddy Dutch side short on invention and lacking in composure.
Just hours after sealing a loan move from Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain, 18-year-old star Kylian Mbappe came off the bench to score the fourth in a breathtaking cameo. It was his first international goal and taken with the confidence and poise of a seasoned striker.
Lemar struck his first with a crisp half-volley from the edge of the penalty area in the 73rd minute, and tapped home from close range near the end after being set up by Griezmann.
“It was a perfect night,” Lemar said.
Mbappe then casually stroked the ball into the bottom corner in the first minute of injury time, after running onto a neat cutback from his now former Monaco teammate Djibril Sidibe.
“We took some time to get a second goal, but we did many good things on the ball,” France coach Didier Deschamps said. “It’s a very positive result.”
With Mbappe on the bench and Ousmane Dembele not selected, France had the luxury of starting without the second and third most expensive players in the world.
Mbappe’s move is expected to cost PSG 180 million euros ($216 million) when made permanent next year. While Mbappe and the 20-year-old Dembele are the future, Deschamps can always count on the trusted Olivier Giroud and Griezmann.
It was only last year that they were the fulcrum of France’s attack at the European Championship, and their understanding worked again.
Anticipating Griezmann’s run behind him, Giroud cushioned a perfect pass from the edge of the penalty area into his path, allowing Griezmann to run through and place the ball between goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen’s legs.
Griezmann was involved again when midfielder Kevin Strootman was shown a straight red card in the 61st for fouling him. But there was minimal contact and the foul merited a yellow card at most.
Netherlands coach Dick Advocaat acknowledged the gulf in class between the sides.
“We had no chance against a France side that was very strong,” he said. “Maybe in the first half we resisted a little bit, but overall we didn’t play well and France largely deserved to win.”
A home win against Luxembourg on Sunday is hardly a daunting prospect for France, and will all but book its ticket for Russia next year.
Bulgaria jumped into contention for second place after midfielder Ivaylo Chochev’s late winner moved it two points above Netherlands and one behind Sweden.
Midfielder Stanislav Manolev put Bulgaria ahead in the 12th minute, with Celtic defender Mikael Lustig equalizing for Sweden in the 29th.
It took the home side four minutes to regain the lead through central midfielder Georgi Kostadinov, but striker Marcus Berg’s 13th international goal drew Sweden level just before the break.
Bulgaria is away to the Netherlands on Sunday, while Sweden travels to struggling Belarus.
“We still have our destiny in our own hands,” Advocaat said. “If we win our last three games we’ll finish second and go to the playoffs.”
Daniel Da Mota Alves rarely scores for his country, but the attacking midfielder’s fifth international goal in his 70th appearance was enough to secure Luxembourg a 1-0 home win against Belarus.
A rare victory, also, but not enough to move Luxembourg off the bottom of Group A.
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Meunier leads Belgium in Group H win over Gibraltar
BRUSSELS — With a showtime performance orchestrated by Thomas Meunier against part-timers from Gibraltar, star-studded Belgium produced a 9-0 victory to bring next year’s World Cup finals ever closer.
PSG’s Meunier had three goals and three assists and Romelu Lukaku added three goals of his own in an overall demonstration of flicks, backheels and superior moves.
In the other Group H games, Estonia held Greece to a 0-0 draw and Cyprus edged Bosnia-Herzegovina 3-2 as Belgium was able to increase its lead to six points over second-placed Greece.
With three games left, Belgium has 19 points, Greece 13, Bosnia 11 and Cyprus 10. Estonia and Gibraltar are at the bottom of the group with 4 and 0 points, respectively.
Belgium was shooting for a rare double-digit score until the final whistle but fell just short.
“10-0 is not is a score that gives you an extra point,” said coach Roberto Martinez. Still, Belgium widened its lead over Greece and looks a shoo-in for the finals in Russia.
Amid the pick of goals none was more enticing than Axel Witsel’s strike to make it 4-0 with a perfectly executed bicycle kick. Thirteen minutes later though he was off with a straight red card for a reckless tackle within his own half. It means he will miss the key qualifier in Athens against Greece.
“It is a player we are going to be missing on Sunday,” said Martinez. He will likely be replaced by Mousa Dembele.
With 10 men, and bringing in substitutes, Belgium took it easy in the second half, knowing its toughest test of the qualifying tournament will come Sunday.
It wasn’t like last year, when Christian Benteke scored the fastest goal ever in World Cup qualifying with a strike after 8.1 seconds.
This time it took 15 minutes before Dries Mertens sent a weak angled shot towards goal where Deren Ibrahim made a slapstick fumble and let the ball slip through his legs and just across the line.
Halfway through the match, Belgium had 25 attempts, Gibraltar none.
In the 82nd minute, Gibraltar also had a man sent off, Erin Barnett, for a penalty area foul, allowing Lukaku to get his third from the spot.
Eden Hazard, coming off an ankle injury which kept him sidelined for months, played for 77 minutes and scored on a flick close to goal.
“I was happy to feel the joy of playing again,” Hazard said.
A lackluster Greece was held to a scoreless draw to Estonia but just clung on to second position in Group H.
German coach Michael Skibbe knows Greece will have to perform a lot better in its forthcoming home encounter with Belgium.
“We need to win the match against Belgium to come closer to them,” he said.
Estonia defended strongly throughout Thursday’s dull match at the Karaiskakis Stadium.
“I’m really proud of my team the way they defended today,” Liverpool defender Ragnar Klavan said.
In perhaps the most exciting game of the group, Cyprus damaged the World Cup hopes of Bosnia-Herzegovina with a second-half comeback and three goals in 11 minutes for a 3-2 home win.
Bosnia seemed to have a lock on second place in the group by halftime after goals from Toni Sunjic and Edin Visca.
Yet it all unraveled between the 65th and 76th minute when captain Dimitris Christofi and Vincent Laban equaled the score before Pieros Sotiriou got the unlikely winner.
Now, Cyprus, Greece and Bosnia seem destined to fight it out for second place and a playoff place.
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