Cristiano Ronaldo was the star for Portugal as he scored one of the three goals against Luxembourg to help his country register a comfortable win in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers, on Friday, in Lisbon.

The defending European champions, Portugal edged closer to an eventual spot in the next year’s continental event. With 11 points from five games, they stand second in qualifying Group B following Ukraine (16 points from six matches).

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Portugal goal number 94 #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/D53U5m5ROh

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— UEFA EURO 2020 (@UEFAEURO) October 11, 2019

Taking advantage of a defensive blunder, the Juventus star raced clear in front of the opponent box. He then beat the Luxembourg goalkeeper Anthony Moris at ease with a delightful lob from the edge of the penalty area to put on display his sheer class.

The strike against Luxembourg put Ronaldo on the brink of 700 career goals, with the forward requiring only one more to acquire the achievement. This was also his 94th international goal and he currently sits second in the list of all-time highest international goal scorer.

Though the Fernando Santos-managed side dominated the match throughout, they missed a string of chances and failed to win by a bigger margin. Moris was at his level best as he produced a barrage of fine saves to deny the home team from having an extravagant night at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.

Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva had opened the scoring for Seleção das Quinas at the 16th minute, while the final nail in the Luxembourg coffin was hammered by Gonçalo Guedes in the dying minutes of the game.

Group leader Ukraine, too, won their respective match by defeating Serbia 2-0 and need to avoid a defeat in their next outing against Portugal on Monday to qualify for the quadrennial tournament to be held across Europe.

England, on the other hand, lost the chance to become the second team after Belgium to qualify for next year’s marquee event after losing an away game to Czech Republic 2-0.

A famous night in Prague for the Czech Republic #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/VpupcJmTN0

— UEFA EURO 2020 (@UEFAEURO) October 11, 2019

The Three Lions started the match on a positive note after captain Harry Kane converted a penatly in the fifth-minute to take an early lead.

However, Czech Republic, who were handed an embarrassing 5-0 defeat in the reverse fixture, equalised right after from a Jakub Brabec goal.

Making his debut, substitute Zdenek Ondrasek scored the winner for the heam in the 85th minute to not only deny England the chance to reserve their spot in Euro 2020 but also end their decade-long unbeaten run in qualifying matches.