WORLD CUP 2018 | EUROPE
Cristiano, André Silva, Pogba, Benteke in World Cup victories
Big wins for Portugal and Belgium against group minnows while France edge the headline clash of the night against the Netherlands.
There were nine games on tonight in the World Cup 2018 European qualifying campaign and no shortage of talking points. The biggest match up was between two relative historical heavyweights and it took a strike from world record transfer holder Paul Pogba to settle that. Elsewhere, Christian Benteke grabbed a new record and Cristiano scored yet again in a big Portugal win.
France win in Holland
Criticised by coach Didier Deschamps for his performance in Friday's 4-1 win over Bulgaria in Paris, the world's most expensive footballer emphatically replied with a towering display for Les Bleus in Amsterdam in the most eye-catching fixture on Monday. The Manchester United midfielder's powerful hit from 25 metres out after half an hour left diving Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg able to get his hands to the ball but unable to stop it.
'It's an important win for us even if we could have had a larger lead,' said Deschamps. 'We could have hurt them more in the first half. It's good to have got these two victories.'
France are equal on seven points at the top of Group A with Sweden, who beat Bulgaria 3-0 at home in Solna. The two countries will play on November 11 at the Stade de France. Pogba was imperial in front of a central defence made up of Raphael Varane and Laurent Koscielny, who pushed back wave after wave of Dutch attacks. And Pogba nearly doubled his account with a header off a Dimitri Payet corner on 66 minutes just lacking power.
The French had a slight scare in the final minute of action but Hugo Lloris did well to keep out a Memphis Depay effort on the line.
Minnows treated as such
Belgium and Portugal went on goal sprees against minnows Gibraltar and the Faroe Islands.
Belgium striker Benteke set a new World Cup record for the fastest goal ever - just seven seconds - on his way to a hat-trick in Faro. Belgium top Group H on nine points out of nine, ahead of Greece on goal difference.
The 25-year-old Crystal Palace forward picked up the ball in the first action in Faro and racing towards goal with the Gibraltar defence in disarray left goalie Deren Ibrahim with no chance. Benteke's quick-fire goal eclipsed the previous best of 8.3 seconds achieved by San Marino's Davide Gualtieri in a World Cup qualifier against England in November 1993.
Portugal, bidding to catch Group B leaders Switzerland, matched their 6-0 win over Andorra on Friday. Andre Silva scored a hat-trick for the European champions before captain Cristiano Ronaldo netted his fifth goal in four days, with Joao Cancelo and Joao Moutinho also scoring late on.
European round-up
Switzerland maintained their unbeaten run, coming away 2-1 winners from Andorra with Fabian Schaer and Admir Mehmedi scoring in either half.
Greece won away in Estonia thanks to goals from Torosidis (2) and Stafylidis (60). Sweden saw three goals in a 15 minute spell either side of half-time take them to a comfortable 3-0 win at home to Bulgaria. Hungary went to Latvia and won by two goals to nil, Cyprus left Bosnia and Herzegovina losing 2-0 and Belarus shared two goals with visitors Luxembourg.