Even without Ronaldo
With a goal spectacle: Portugal makes World Cup qualification perfect
Updated 11/16/2025 – 5:09 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The 2016 European champions experienced a strange initial phase against Armenia. But then all the dams break.
Portugal completed qualification for the 2026 World Cup on the last matchday – and with a real goal spectacle. Coach Roberto Martinez’s team, which had to make do without the suspended Cristiano Ronaldo, won 9-1 (5-1) in Porto against a hopelessly overwhelmed Armenia and is traveling to the tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Renato Veiga (7th minute) opened the scoring on Sunday afternoon, Gonçalo Ramos (28th) and three goals each from João Neves (30th, 41st, 81st) and Bruno Fernandes (45th + 3/penalty, 51st, 72nd/penalty) made the home crowd cheer. Francisco Conceição scored the final score (90+2). Eduard Spertsyan (18th) scored the short-lived equalizer for the guests.
Long before the final whistle, the fans celebrated the second biggest victory in Portugal’s history, but above all their participation in the World Cup. Portugal had only won higher in the 9-0 win against Luxembourg in September 2023.
Ronaldo is now on the verge of his sixth World Cup; no footballer has ever achieved this. However, it remains to be seen whether the 41-year-old will miss one or even two group games. Portugal’s association apparently wants to obtain a short suspension from the world association Fifa and release the top star for the start of the final round.
According to the Portuguese newspaper “A Bola”, the FPF association wants to apply for a ban of just one game. It is usual for attacks like Ronaldo’s elbow check in Dublin to involve at least three games. This would mean he would miss the first two World Cup group duels.
His hunt for records would then also be slowed down. Portugal’s record player and goalscorer is the only player to date to score at least one goal in five different World Cup tournaments: 2006 (1), 2010 (1), 2014 (1), 2018 (4) and 2022 (1).
Portugal had previously missed three match points: at 2-2 against Hungary, they were only a few seconds away from winning, followed by a 0-2 loss in Ireland – with the red card against Ronaldo as the low point.