Portugal and Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes celebrated his twenty-ninth birthday by scoring the only goal of the match in the 43rd minute.
Portugal, which achieved its fifth successive victory since the start of the qualifiers, raised its tally to 15 points, moving away by 5 points from Slovakia, which has become chased by Luxembourg and also has 10 points by defeating Iceland 3-1.
On Monday, Portugal will play an easy test in Faro against Luxembourg, which lost at home to Europe’s “Seleção” 6-0 on March 26, including a brace for Ronaldo.
Ronaldo, a 5-time Ballon d’Or winner, played his 201st match at the international level (a record), but he was ineffective throughout the 90 minutes.
Ronaldo, the Saudi star of Al-Nasr, received a yellow card after strong contact with Slovakian goalkeeper Martin Dubravka, and he will miss his team’s next match against Luxembourg because of the accumulation of cards, against which he scored 11 goals in 11 matches.
Slovakia was the best party in the first half, but Portugal scored contrary to the course of the game by the Manchester United playmaker, who walked the ball before penetrating into the area and firing a creeping reverse shot, which settled in the bottom corner of goalkeeper Dubravka two minutes before the end of the first half.
The goal is Bruno’s sixteenth in 59 international matches, noting that he led Portugal, European champions 2016, to a 3-0 victory over Bosnia last June, by scoring a brace.
The hosts tried to adjust the score in the second half, but to no avail.
#Bruno #celebrates #birthday #Slovakia