International Roundup: Ronaldo misses penalty, France see off Netherlands, Suarez scores on return

Mar 26, 2016 at 3:29 PM

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International Roundup: Ronaldo misses penalty, France see off Netherlands, Suarez scores on return

Netherlands failed to beat France in an emotional friendly at Amsterdam Arena, while Ronaldo’s penalty miss see Portugal suffer an unexpected defeat to Bulgaria. But Luis Suarez once again grabbed the headlines as he scored on his international return during Uruguay’s 2-2 draw with Brazil. Here is a quick roundup from Last night’s international fixtures.

Netherlands vs France

On a night when the Netherlands squad paid tribute to the late Johan Cruyff, it was a Frenchman with No. 14 shirt settled a thrilling international friendly at the Amsterdam Arena.

Blaise Matuidi—wearing Cruyff’s old number on his back—scored a 87th-minute winner as France snatched a 3-2 victory over the Dutch.

France seemed to be edging towards victory when they took the 2-0 lead in a hurry, with Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud both finding the back of the net inside the opening 13 minutes.

However, the home team halved the deficit just after the break, as Luuk de Jong turned home Memphis Depay’s free-kick from the left.

Depay also set up Netherlands’ equaliser, the Manchester United attacker’s short corner allowed Ibrahim Afellay to strike home a shot from outside the area.

However, less than a minute after conceding, France skipper Matuidi popped up in the area to score a left-footed goal through the legs of goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen.

Portugal vs Bulgaria

Cristiano Ronaldo and his men suffered a shocking home defeat at the hands of Bulgaria as their Euro preparations took a dent.

It was Marcelinho’s 19th-minute effort which settled the match as the visitors came out as 1-0 winners, before Ronaldo had to watch a penalty saved by Vladislav Stoyanov

Real Madrid star Ronaldo was denied by Stoyanov a further three times as Portugal’s search for an equaliser didn’t see the daylight.

Portugal will take on Iceland, Austria and Hungary in the group stages at France, after facing England in a friendly on 2nd June.

Uruguay vs Brazil

Luis Suarez scored a stunner on his international return as Uruguay managed to erase a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 against Brazil on Friday night in South American qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Brazil took the 2-0 lead midway through the first half courtesy goals from Douglas Costa and Renato Augusto, but Uruguay pulled a goal back thanks to Edinson Cavani before the break. Suarez then notched the equalizer two minutes into the second half.

Despite the draw, Uruguay at the moment stay second in the CONMEBOL standings with 10 points from five games. Brazil are third, two points behind.

Canada vs Mexico

Mexico netted twice in the first half and added another in the 72nd minute for a 3-0 victory over Canada in Friday’s CONCACAF World Cup qualifying fixture in Vancouver.

It’s been a dominant stretch for Mexico whenever these two sides meet each other.

Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez scored the opening goal in the 31st minute through a header from the center of the box.  His header came off a blazing pass by Miguel Layun from the left side. Eight minutes later, Hirving Lozano finds the right bottom corner of the net for the 2-0 lead heading into halftime.

The Canadians had seven shots compared to Mexico’s 19, one of those 19 shots came from Jesus Manuel Corona in the 72nd minute to hand Mexico the three-goal advantage.

The Republic of Ireland vs Switzerland

Ciaran Clark netted a first-half header as Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2016 preparations enjoyed a huge boost with a 1-0 victory over Switzerland at the Aviva Stadium.

The Aston Villa defender found himself on the end of Shane Duffy’s flick-on from Robbie Brady’s corner to guide the Green Army in front after only two minutes to start, which ultimately proved decisive in the end in Dublin.

Luxembourg vs Bosnia-Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina poured in a late 20-minute flurry of goals to overcome a resolute Luxembourg team 3-0 in Luxembourg City.

The match was scoreless until the 73rd minute when a Maxine Chanot own goal opened the floodgates for the visitors, who chased on another through Milan Djuric just two minutes later and completed the scoring in second-half injury time with a Miralem Pjanic strike.

Meanwhile, Slovakia could not find a way to defeat Latvia in a goalless stalemate.

Belarus’ friendly at Armenia also ended 0-0.

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