PARIS: Cristiano Ronaldo marshalled Portugal past Switzerland in the Nations League on Sunday as Gavi made history becoming Spain’s youngest ever scorer.

Ronaldo scored two goals in four first half minutes and had a third ruled offside by VAR as Portugal crushed Switzerland 4-0 in Lisbon.

The Manchester United striker had set up William Carvalho for the opener with Joao Cancelo completing the rout to fire Portugal to the top of League A, Group 2, on goal difference from the Czech Republic. Switzerland are on zero after back-to-back losses and are now winless in their last four encounters since they qualified for the World Cup in Qatar.

In Prague, Jakub Pesek put the hosts in front before Gavi levelled with a low curling left-footer at the record age of 17 years and 304 days just before halftime.

However, the Czech’s retook the lead in the 66th minute when forward Jan Kuchta lobbed goalkeeper Unai Simon from just outside the area after he was sent through on goal alone.

Spain scored in the 90th minute to break the hearts of the home fans when Martinez connected with a cross from Marco Asensio and his header just crossed the line.

“It is wonderful to be able to say that we are disappointed to lose points against Spain,” said Czech captain Tomas Soucek.

“We showed heart and great teamwork. If somebody told us that we would have four points before these two games, we would have taken it. We have started well and look forward to the next games.”

Luis Enrique said the game was “very complicated” for his side.

“It was a complicated game from the first chance, we were not ourselves for the most of the time, we did not manage (the game) as well as we wanted,” Enrique told a news conference.

“We had more chances, but especially in the first half, we had a problem to play against such a strong, aggressively playing team with an excellent defence. We lacked fluidity, so the match was really very complicated.” In their five previous encounters, the Czechs only once managed to get at least a point against Spain - a goalless draw in 1996. They previously scored their only goal against Spain in a Euro 2012 qualifier in 2011

Spain reached the final of last year’s Nations League, beating European champions Italy in the semis before losing to France, and they enjoyed a relatively smooth qualification for the World Cup.

But they are now on the back foot in this competition and after their opening 1-1 stalemate with Portugal on Thursday are placed third in the group, two points adrift.

Portugal host Czech Republic in their next fixture on Thursday, while Switzerland entertain Spain in Geneva on the same evening.

Elsewhere Northern Ireland extended their winless run in the competition to 12 with a drab goalless draw in Cyprus And Georgia are in command at the top of League C Group 4 after dishing out a 5-2 drubbing to Bulgaria while Manchester City’s new headline signing Erling Haaland produced the goals in Norway’s 2-1 win in Sweden.

The Norwegians top League B, Group 4 after two wins from Serbia, 4-1 winners over Slovenia.

Published in Dawn,June 7th, 2022