It took Portugal until the 63rd minute to score at home against Azerbaijan. If that sounds bad, that's because it is bad, but A Selecção weren't quite as awful as that indicates. Before that first goal, they hit the post four times, with Cristiano Ronaldo striking it twice.
Once they turned in that first goal, things calmed down for Paulo Bento's men and they turned in a couple more. Both Portugal and Russia will be heading into their massive qualifying match with perfect records after Portugal pulled off a 3-0 win on Tuesday.
Varela scored the opening goal, cleaning up a bit of a mess in front of the goal. Just seconds after he entered the match, the substitute finished a deflected cross from close range to put his team ahead. Helder Postiga expanded his team's lead in the 85th minute by poking home a Ronaldo cross, and Bruno Alves completed the comfortable win with a header off a corner kick in the 88th.
We'll have live coverage of every qualifier in our UEFA 2014 World Cup Qualifying StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.
There are 0 Comments. Add Yours.
Shortcuts to mastering the comment thread. Use wisely.
C - Next Comment
X - Mark as Read
R - Reply
Z - Mark Read & Next
Shift + C - Previous
Shift + A - Mark All Read
Comment Settings
Live comment alert: Hide it!
Comments for this post are closed.