Euro 2020 qualifying: Cristiano Ronaldo scores four goals as Portugal cruises

Portugal cast itself a Euro 2020 qualifying safety net thanks to a deep run in the Nations League last spring.

With only two games played in its actual qualifying group, however, Portugal needed to start racking up some wins.

We’ll let Cristiano Ronaldo take it from there.

Ronaldo scored four times in Portugal’s 5-1 win over Lithuania on Tuesday, his eighth career hat trick for his country.

Three of the goals came during a 15-minute flurry in the second half, and the reigning European champions might have needed it more than it seemed. Ronaldo converted a penalty for his opener in the seventh minute, but Lithuania’s Vytautas Andriuškevičius knotted the score at 1-1 in the 28th minute.

Ronaldo bagged his second just past the hour mark, then finished off his hat trick four minutes later by tiptoeing between defenders in the center of the box and flicking home Bernardo Silva’s ball in:

In the 76th minute, Silva slipped another pass to Ronaldo, who opened up his body and curled a first-time finish into the bottom right corner:

Portugal is now second in Group B with eight points, while Ukraine leads with 13. Ronaldo and Co. will visit Kiev on Oct. 14 after the two nations played to a scoreless draw last March.

Jadon Sancho scores first two goals for England

Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho scored twice late in the first half, which proved to be vital as England beat Kosovo 5-3.

The 19-year-old settled a pass from Raheem Sterling in the 44th minute and punished Kosovo for the space afforded to him:

Sancho scored again in the first minute of stoppage time as the Three Lions struggled a bit but stayed atop Group A with four wins from four matches played.

American fans will no doubt recognize Sancho has the promising attacker who rendered Christian Pulisic excess goods at Dortmund, though Pulisic is growing into his new role at Chelsea to start the season.

Other Euro 2020 qualifying scores

Albania 4-2 Iceland

France 3-0 Andorra

Moldova 0-4 Turkey

Luxembourg 1-3 Serbia

Montenegro 0-3 Czech Republic

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