NATIONS LEAGUE
Italy squander two-goal lead in Belgium draw after red card
Italy were held to a 2-2 draw by Belgium on Thursday after Lorenzo Pellegrini was sent off and they squandered a 2-0 lead but remained top of Nations League A Group 2.
Italy lead the standing on seven points, one ahead of France who beat Israel 4-1 with Belgium third on four.
Italy scored in the first minute when winger Federico Di Marco fired a low cross into the box and Belgium keeper Koen Casteels saved the first shot from Andrea Cambiaso who bundled in the rebound.
Italy doubled the lead in the 24th minute when Di Marco volleyed the ball across the field to Cambiaso who was denied a second by Casteels before striker Mateo Retegui knocked in the loose ball.
Coach Luciano Spalletti’s team were cruising until midfielder Pellegrini was sent off for hitting Belgium defender Arthur Theate at the end of the first half, following a VAR review.
The red card galvanised the Belgians and they immediately hit back through Maxim de Cuyper who halved the deficit with a curling shot from the edge of the box after a clever free kick routine.
“There are episodes that change the games,” Spalletti said, referring to the red card.
Belgium started the second half strongly and equalised in the 61th minute when Leandro Trossard poked home from close range following a header by Wout Faes.
“Too bad, we did the first 40 minutes until the expulsion great,” said Cambiaso.
Belgium, who faced Italy without injured captain Kevin De Bruyne and striker Romelu Lukaku, face a key clash with France on Monday, when Italy face Israel.
Theate said Belgium still had chances to finish in the top two and qualify for the Nations League quarter-finals.
“We should have won with 10 against 11, we didn’t do it but we have a (key) game with France now,” he said.
-Reuters
England winger Bukayo Saka has returned to Arsenal for further assessment of a leg injury and will miss Sunday’s Nations League match in Finland, the England team said on Saturday.
Saka was forced off in the 51st minute of England’s 2-1 loss to Greece at Wembley on Thursday. England interim manager Lee Carsley had said that Saka suffered a leg injury.
A 22-man squad will fly to Helsinki ahead of Sunday’s Nations League fixture as Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones has withdrawn due to personal reasons, the team statement added.
England are in second place in the GroupB2 standings, three points behind Greece after three games.
Saka’s injury is a blow for Arsenal with their captain Martin Odegaard also sidelined. Mikel Arteta’s side play Bournemouth away in the Premier League next Saturday
-Reuters
Greece beat England for the first time as Vangelis Pavlidis struck twice in a deserved 2-1 victory in Nations League Group B2 at Wembley on Thursday.
Pavlidis gave his side the lead early in the second half with a clinical finish and the visitors had three other goals ruled out against a disjointed England side.
Jude Bellingham looked to have rescued England when he fired in an 87th-minute equaliser through but there was another twist as the outstanding Pavlidis popped up in the fourth minute of stoppage time to shoot past Jordan Pickford from close range.
Victory put Greece top of the table with a maximum nine points while England’s first defeat under stand-in manager Lee Carsley left them second with six points.
-Reuters
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 900th career goal in Portugal’s home Nations League game against Croatia on Thursday.
Ronaldo put his side 2-0 up at the Estadio da Luz in the 34th minute when he got on the end of a Nuno Mendes cross with a tap-in volley from close range, before falling to the ground looking emotional at reaching another milestone.
The 39-year-old has now netted 131 international goals, 450 for Real Madrid, 145 for Manchester United, 101 for Juventus and 68 for his current club Al Nassr as well as five for his first club Sporting Lisbon.
Argentina’s Lionel Messi, second in the all-time scorer’s list, has bagged 859 career goals.
-Reuters
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