Bruno Fernandes and Portugal secured another straightforward win over the international break. They followed up a Euro 2024 qual...
They followed up a Euro 2024 qualifying win over Liechtenstein with a victory over Luxembourg.
Bruno Fernandes started both games despite being in need of a rest, playing 75 minutes of Sunday night’s win.
Portugal raced into a 4-0 win in the first 30 minutes, and then just played out the rest of the game like an exhibition.
Fernandes finally provides an assist for Ronaldo
Arguably the biggest frustration about Cristiano Ronaldo‘s recent spell at Manchester United was that he did not really click with Bruno Fernandes.
There was a hope the Portuguese duo would hit it off, despite rarely doing it for Portugal together either.
Ronaldo scored two goals against Luxembourg to extend his record setting international goal tally to 122 strikes.
The second of Ronaldo’s goals was assisted by Bruno Fernandes, with a perfectly timed pass into him.
This made up for Fernandes providing eight goalscoring chances in Portugal’s last game, and ending up with no assists.
In 93 games played together, Fernandes and Ronaldo have combined for goals just seven times. This is a woefully poor return considering their abilities.
This was the first assist Fernandes has provided for Cristiano Ronaldo since Manchester United’s draw away with Atalanta in November 2021.
A whole year followed of Fernandes failing to assist Ronaldo for club or country, with the forward quitting the Red Devils at the end of last year.
If they had been able to perform better together, perhaps Ronaldo would have stuck around. For Portugal, neither player can walk away, and they have to try and make it work.
While just Luxembourg, this was a step in the right direction for the pair, who have new dreams of trophy success at Euro 2024.
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