Lukaku saves Belgium’s blushes against Austria

BRUSSELS: Austria claimed a potentially important away point as it held Belgium to a 1-1 draw in the Group F European Championship 2024 qualifier in Brussels on Saturday, ending the host’s impressive winning run in the preliminaries.

The result meant Austria, which played a robust physical game, advanced to seven points from three games, three more than Belgium, which was playing its second group game, in the bid to qualify for next year’s finals in Germany.

Austria took the lead from a 21st minute corner, swung over to the back post where Michael Gregoritsch struck the ball in. Belgium midfielder Orel Mangala stuck out his heel in a sloppy effort to block the ball and only succeeded in diverting it past goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Romelu Lukaku, captaining Belgium in the absence of the injured Kevin De Bruyne, had missed a good chance early in the second half but made up for it in the 61st minute as he was given time to turn and fire in the equaliser.

The goal extended Lukaku’s record for his country to 73 goals in 108 appearances, but the draw brought to an end Belgium’s run of 15 successive wins in the European Championship qualifiers, stretching back to 2015.

Courtois made a diving stop to deny Stefan Posch from restoring Austria’s lead soon after, but the woodwork denied Belgium a stoppage-time winner as Youri Tielemans rattled the crossbar.

The match marked a disappointing home debut for Belgium’s new coach Domenico Tedesco, whose side is next up away against Estonia on Tuesday.

Austria has a chance to keep up its group lead when it takes on Sweden in Vienna on the same night.

Portugal eases past Bosnia

Bruno Fernandes struck twice and Bernardo Silva also scored to earn Portugal a 3-0 home win over Bosnia and Herzegovina and secure the third straight win of its qualifying campaign.

Roberto Martinez’s side tops Group J with nine points and will be looking for a fourth successive victory against Iceland on Tuesday. Bosnia, fourth on three points, next hosts Luxembourg.

Portugal dominated possession but only opened the scoring seconds before halftime when Silva chipped in from Fernandes’ pass to register his 11th international goal.

Fernandes doubled the lead with a brilliant header from Ruben Neves’ cross in the 77th minute before sealing the win in stoppage time with a powerful volley to reach 15 international goals.

RESULTS: Belgium 1 (Lukaku 61) drew with Austria 1 (Mangala 21-og); Portugal 3 (Silva 44, Fernandes 77, 90+3) bt Bosnia 0; Iceland 1 (Finnbogason 41-pen) lost to Slovakia 2 (Kucka 27, Suslov 69); Norway 1 (Haaland 61-pen) lost to Scotland 2 (Dykes 87, McLean 89)