While You Were Asleep: Ronaldo scores another brace, Benzema refuses France retirement tribute, Italy beat Malta 2-0

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to lead a 6-0 rout of Luxembourg. Karim Benzema was meant to be honoured at the Stade de France on Friday. Retegui scored again in Italy’s 2-0 win over Malta.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored another brace as Portugal completed a 6-0 rout over Luxembourg in Euro 2024 qualifying.

The double from Ronaldo, the all-time scoring leader in men’s soccer, took his career tally for Portugal to 122 goals in 198 games.

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Ronaldo opened the scoring after nine minutes and grabbed his second just after the half-hour, with Chelsea’s Joao Felix and Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva having made it 3-0 to the visitors inside 18 minutes.

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Second-half substitute Otavio made it 5-0 just two minutes after coming on and Rafael Leao completed the scoring in the 88th minute, having missed a penalty shortly beforehand.

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Portugal leads Group J with six points. Slovakia is next with four points after its 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has three.

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[{"selector":"#anim-37f0137e-c1ac-4dec-afb3-ada4cbd21104","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":0,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.2, 0.6, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] [{"selector":"#anim-da768581-45f1-4973-a8bd-e10f39f78978","keyframes":{"transform":["translate3d(0px, 141.27990%, 0)","translate3d(0px, 0px, 0)"]},"delay":0,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.2, 0.6, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] Karim Benzema was meant to be honoured at the Stade de France on Monday but the striker snubbed the “retirement tribute”s ahe is still ‘hugely bitter’ over being sent home from the Qatar World Cup by France manager Didier Deschamps.

[{"selector":"#anim-27cb87f7-f964-4066-87f0-2d36321d0e73","keyframes":{"opacity":[0,1]},"delay":0,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.2, 0.6, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] [{"selector":"#anim-e0506e87-661a-4569-b216-a3aa9dc549f0","keyframes":{"transform":["translate3d(0px, 139.88960%, 0)","translate3d(0px, 0px, 0)"]},"delay":0,"duration":600,"easing":"cubic-bezier(0.2, 0.6, 0.0, 1)","fill":"both"}] Benzema would have likely taken part in a pre-match tribute which saw France pay respect to Hugo Lloris, Raphael Varane, Blaise Matuidi and Steve Mandanda after their retirements on Friday before their opening Euro 2024 qualifier.

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