No Ronaldo? No problem! Portugal beat Denmark 4-2

Portugal put the dramatic exit of captain Cristiano Ronaldo behind them on Thursday as they cruised to a 4-2 away win against Denmark in their UEFA Nations League clash.

The dominant victory appears to mark a bright beginning for life without Ronaldo.

Barcelona fullback João Cancelo opened the scoring for Jorge Jesus’s side in the 13th minute, while Gonçalo Ramos, Vitinha, and João Félix completed the rout.

Mikkel Damsgaard and Rasmus Højlund grabbed the goals for Denmark, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Portuguese momentum.

In a symbolic passing of the torch, Rafael Leão donned the iconic No. 7 shirt vacated by Ronaldo. He put in a solid 63 minutes before making way for Francisco Trincão.

With the win, Portugal successfully shifted the focus back to the pitch, putting aside the negative off-field controversies that have dominated the headlines since Wednesday.

In other action around the continent, Xavi’s Netherlands fought back from two goals down to rescue a point away in Greece. Fotis Ioannidis and Giorgos Masouras had put the Greek side ahead in the first half.

However, the Oranje emerged much stronger after the break to salvage a draw. A Virgil van Dijk header shortly after the restart and a dramatic stoppage-time equalizer by Tijjani Reijnders prevented what could have been an embarrassing defeat for this new-era Dutch side, who also saw two goals disallowed for offside.

Meanwhile, in Germany, Jürgen Klopp’s men secured a comfortable 2-0 victory over Serbia, while Wales edged out Norway 2-1.

Elsewhere, Ireland and Austria shared the spoils in an entertaining 2-2 draw, Israel and Kosovo fought to a goalless stalemate, Malta drew 1-1 with Gibraltar, and the match between Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein also ended 0-0.