Nations League: Sterling rescues England; France, Portugal, Belgium win

 

Raheem Sterling scored a late penalty as England avoid another slip-up against Iceland in the UEFA Nations League Saturday.

Elsewhere, world champions France, holders Portugal and Belgium all enjoyed winning starts to their campaigns.

Portugal shrugged off the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo to thrash Croatia 4-1 with top-ranked Belgium coming away from Denmark with a 2-0 win.

In Reykjavik, Raheem Sterling’s last minute penalty salvaged England from another embarrassing result against Iceland.

Gareth Southgate’s men also survived going down to 10 men and seeing Birkir Bjarnason miss a late spot-kick for the hosts.

Harry Kane had an early goal wrongly ruled out for offside before Kyle Walker was sent-off for two bookable offences 20 minutes from time.

All of Iceland’s good defensive work was undone in the 89th minute when Sverrir Ingason was also harshly dismissed for a second booking when he blocked Sterling’s shot with his arm.

With Kane having been replaced by Mason Greenwood, Sterling took responsibility from spot, but the drama did not end there.

Straight from kick-off, Joe Gomez was adjudged to have bundled over Holmbert Fridjonsson inside the area, but Bjarnason blazed the resulting penalty over.

Kylian Mbappe scored with France’s only shot on goal in Solna to give the world champions a 1-0 victory over Sweden.

Mbappe picked up the ball wide of the goal in the 41st minute, squeezed past two defenders, waited for goalkeeper Robin Olsen to go down and then clipped the ball just inside the post from the narrowest of angles.

In Porto, Cristiano Ronaldo was missing with an infected toe, but Portugal were still too good for a disappointing Croatia.

Joao Cancelo, Diogo Jota, with his first international goal, Joao Felix and Andre Silva were all on target for Portugal who also hit the woodwork three times.

Belgium defeated Denmark 2-0 in Copenhagen, handing the Danes a first home loss in four years and an opening defeat for new coach Kasper Hjulmand.

Lyon defender Jason Denayer tucked away his first international goal from Dries Mertens’ free-kick.

Mertens added the second in the 77th minute when the Napoli striker pounced on a loose ball after Kasper Schmeichel had blocked a Youri Tielmans effort with his legs.