Paris: Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and Antoine Griezmann’s France booked spots at the 2018 World Cup finals, Tuesday.
Portugal beat Switzerland 2-0 in Lisbon thanks to a Johan Djourou own goal and an Andre Silva strike while France needed goals from Griezmann and Olivier Giroud in a hard-fought 2-1 win over Belarus at the Stade de France in Paris.
“We have had a difficult route and tonight (Tuesday) wasn’t easy either but we’ve achieved our aim,” coach Didier Deschamps said. “We are happy, even if qualifying is logical given the quality of the players I have.”
Deschamps paired Griezmann with Giroud’s aerial threat, and Griezmann eased nerves in the 27th minute as he opened the scoring with a confident low finish from Blaise Matuidi’s deft pass from the left.
Six minutes later, Griezmann intercepted a weak pass out of the Belarus defence and fed Giroud, who shrugged off two defenders to bundle in his 28th international goal.
But the French defence was caught napping, allowing Belarus to reduce the gap when the lively Anton Saroka swept past Hugo Lloris a minute before half time.
In Lisbon, hosts Portugal navigated a potentially fraught final fixture with Switzerland, who become one of the eight European nations who must fight through the play-offs for a spot in Russia. The others are Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Greece and the Republic of Ireland.
Ronaldo, who was injured for the opening qualifying defeat in Basel, returned to the Portuguese line-up Tuesday. US pop star Madonna was among the crowd at the Estadio da Luz which erupted when Djourou inadvertently bundled in a dangerous cross from Eliseu four minutes before the break under heavy pressure from Joao Mario.
Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva then exchanged passes with former Monaco teammate Joao Moutinho, threading through the return pass for an unmarked Andre Silva to poke in at the far post.