Key events
You’ll notice from those half-time scores that Greece have doubled their lead against Netherlands. Ruben van Bommel, son of Belgium manager Mark, plays a dreadful backpass which acts as a through ball for Greece. Ioannidis is onto it in a flash, reaches the byline and plays a square pass to Masouras, who steers the ball past Verbruggen from close range.
This is a very good Greece side, by the way, but also a particularly underwhelming Dutch era. Xavi has quite the job on his hands before Euro 2028.
Half-time scores!
Wales 1-1 Norway
Denmark 1-2 Portugal
Germany 1-0 Serbia
Republic of Ireland 2-0 Austria
Greece 2-0 Netherlands
Israel 0-0 Kosovo
Malta 0-0 Gibraltar
GOAL! Republic of Ireland 2-0 Austria (Parrott 45 pen)
Republic of Ireland gifted a soft (but probably correct) penalty after Seiwald goes through the back of Manning, who crept up on the Austria defender’s blindside. Parrott, full of confidence, steps up and sends Wiegele the wrong way to score his second of the match!
42 min: Wales 1-1 Norway
Odegaard is really pulling the strings for the visitors. Wales will be happy to get to half-time all square.
GOAL! Germany 1-0 Serbia (Bischof 39)
Wirtz just looks a different player when he’s not in a Liverpool shirt and the 23-year-old turns on the style here to inspire Germany. Preposterously quick feet earns Wirtz some room inside Serbia’s box as he somehow ghosts past two defenders before toe-poking a finish onto the foot of the post. The ball rebound out and Bischof is there to crash the loose ball into the roof of the net. The Allianz Arena erupts!
GOAL! Wales 1-1 Norway (James 37)
Koumas pings it wide to Sorba Thomas and the Hull City winger’s pinpoint cross finds James at the back stick for a tap in! A simple goal, but very hard to defend once Thomas sent in one of his trademark early crosses. Bellamy punches the air, while James is rather more understated with his celebrations. Wales are level!
30 min: Germany 0-0 Serbia
This new-look Germany side are struggling to break down a sturdy Serbia team. The home side enjoying lots of possession but no great incision. This is a big night for Woltemade, starting tonight despite just one goal since his loan move to Juventus.
GOAL! Denmark 1-2 Portugal (Ramos 24)
Ramos on fire! An assist and now a goal! This is not pretty viewing for Ronaldo, who must be sitting at home, while Jorge Jesus looks entirely vindicated in selecting the Milan striker ahead of CR7. Nuno Mendes breaks forward from left back – he’ll do that – plays the ball into Ramos’ feet. Ramos backheels it to Fernandes, expertly, and then gets on his bike, bursting into space. Fernandes plays a beautiful first-time return ball to send Ramos through and the striker finishes with ease at the near post. Corrrrrrrr, we’ve seen some goals tonight, I tell you!
GOAL! Greece 1-0 Netherlands (Ioannidis 23)
This is not a good Dutch side. They are undone by a simple flick on. Ioannidis sprints onto the touch, in the inside left position, and simply curls it into the far corner! Van Dijk just watched him do it, as if he was daring him to shoot. Why didn’t the Liverpool legend make a tackle?! Ioannidis took the invitation and Greece are 1-0 up!
GOAL! Denmark 1-1 Portugal (Damsgaard 23)
A classic counter-attacking move, finished off by the Brentford creator! From a quick Hermansen throw, Damsgaard starts the move himself. Denmark flow up field, with Maehle making a lung-busting overlapping run on the left. The ball is cut back to Damsgaard on the edge of Portugal’s area, and he curls it into the top bin!
16 min: Denmark 0-1 Portugal
Two thoughts after that fine Cancelo goal: 1) Ramos, Portugal’s centre forward tonight, registered a brilliant assist there. Does Ronaldo play that pass? Not sure he does. 2) Cancelo is on a bit of a run of scoring brilliant goals recently, he scored two worldies against Racing Santander and won La Liga’s goal of the month for September with his first. Oooooof.
GOAL! Denmark 0-1 Portugal (Cancelo 13)
Moments after Neves hits a post, Denmark half clear the ball to Cancelo. The Barcelona full-back plays a wonderful one-two with Ramos to completely split the Denmark defence in two, and dinks the ball deliciously over Hermansen to give Portugal the lead!
GOAL! Republic of Ireland 1-0 Austria (Parrot 13)
Parrott has morphed into Robbie Keane/Diego Maradona and scored an absolutely sensational solo goal! Route One stuff from the Republic of Ireland as Kelleher hoofs it to Moylan. The Cardiff City winger flicks it on to Parrott, who collects it, completely isolated, about 45 yards from goal. Parrott then just sets off. He turns his first man easily, swiftly nutmegging Lienhart. Austria are now in trouble, scrambling to get back as Parrott approaches the area. Will he turn back for support? Will he eff! Parrott chops back on the outside, around Affengruber, and finishes low under the advancing Austrian keeper Wiegele! WHAT A GOAL! Genuinely a goal of the season contender. That is absolutely outstanding.
GOAL! Wales 0-1 Norway (Bobb 11)
Pure magic from Odegaard to set up Bobb for the opener in Cardiff! This is textbook play from the Arsenal man, playing a one-two with Bobb and defying his markers to somehow occupying a pocket of space in front of the Wales defence, before laying on an inch-perfect through ball. Bobb gives and goes, before taking a nice first touch and finishing inside the near post. Exactly the sort of goal you could imagine Odegaard setting up for Saka scoring at club level.
8 min: Germany 0-0 Serbia
Pavlovic inches wide from giving Germany the lead! From a set piece the ball breaks kindly to the Bayern man on the edge of the area, and he curls it juuuuuuuust wide of Petrovic’s left-hand post. Klopp, as you might imagine, is a picture of calm on the sidelines …
4 min: Denmark 0-0 Portugal
Looks like it is actually Bruno Fernandes who has the armband in lieu of Ronaldo, not Ruben Dias. Portugal are wearing their away kit, that gross white and green number, with Denmark obviously in their red.
“Ronaldo’s obsession with getting 1,000 goals is exactly why he shouldn’t be given the opportunity to get them,” emails Dave Estherby. “Ten Hag saw through him four years ago just as Jesus has now. Hopefully Big Ange [Postecoglou, at Al-Nassr] has the stones Martinez clearly lacked and elbows him too; parading about like a show pony in a vain attempt at a personal milestone at the expense of your team’s success is about as bad as it gets. No doubt he’ll be giving a sob story on Piers Morgan next week.”
1 min: Wales 0-0 Norway
James makes a trademark burst down the right wing for Wales, but Ajer gets across to make a superb sliding tackle. Corner to Wales, which the home side fumble with some sort of botched short routine.
Peeeeeeeeeeeeep!
We are underway in all of the 7.45pm BST kick-offs!
Republic of Ireland v Austria team news
Republic of Ireland (3-4-2-1): Kelleher, Scales, O’Shea, Egan, Manning, Coventry, Azaz, Abankwah, Moylan, Idah, Parrott.
Austria (4-2-3-1): Wiegele, Mwene, Lienhart, Affengruber, Posch, Schlager, Seiwald, Schmid, Chukwuemeka, Wimmer, Kalajdzic.
Greece v Netherlands team news
Greece (4-4-2): Tzolakis, Tsimikas, Retsos, Mavropanos, Saliakas, Tzolis, Androutsos, Kourbelis, Karetsas, Ioannidis, Pavlidis.
Netherlands (4-3-3): Verbruggen, Van de Ven, Van Dijk, Timber, Dumfries, Timber, Til, Veerman, Van Bommel, Meerdink, Summerville.
“Ronaldo is a Gulfstream Jet celebrity who feels a sense of entitlement bordering on megalomania,” emails Gary Stover. “Yet, he has a saving grace. He actually wants to play for his country. John Terry said that he played with varying degrees of injury in all but about five of his 717 appearances in all competitions. Now it seems that some players are ready to find excuses not to play for their countries.”
Not sure we should be holding up John Terry as the good guy, but go off, Gary.
Germany v Serbia team news
Germany (4-1-2-3): Urbig, Mittelstädt, Thiaw, Anton, Treu, Pavlovic, Wirtz, Bischof, Scherhant, Woltemade, Gnabry.
Subs: Jeltsch, Engelhardt, El Mala, Burkardt, Dahmen, Baur, Karl, Baku, Conte, Atubolu, Raum, Janelt.
Serbia (4-4-2): Petrovic, Babic, Gudelj, Erakovic, Nedeljkovic, Kostic, Dzodic, Maksimovic, Zivkovic, Tadic, Jović.
Subs: Pavlovic, Mimovic, A Stankovic, Joeljic, F Stankovic, Simic, Terzic, Cvetkovic, Kostov, Samardzic, Lukic, Milinkovic-Savic.
Pressure is on for Klopp, who if Germany fail to win tonight, would become the first manager of the national team to go winless in his first three matches. Jonas Urbig and Derry Scherhant make their debuts, Serge Gnabry returns after his injury and captains the team for the first time.
Wales v Norway team news
Wales (5-4-1): Ward, Dasilva, Thomas, Davies, Cabango, Williams, Cullen, Ampadu, James, James, Koumas.
Subs: Cornell, Mepham, Ashford, Burns, Johnson, Moore, Roberts, Norrington-Davies, Harris, King, Sheehan, J Colwill.
Norway (4-3-3): Nyland, Møller Wolfe, Heggem, Ajer, Ryerson, Aursnes, Berge, Ødegaard, Schjelderup, Haaland, Bobb.
Subs: Bjortuft, Ostigard, Berg, Strand Larsen, Tangvik, Selvik, Blomberg, Pedersen, Sjovold, Aasgaard, Nusa, Botheim.
Ødegaard is fit, and starts. Brennan Johnson only on the bench for Wales.
Denmark v Portugal team news
Denmark (4-2-3-1): Hermansen, Maehle, Andersen, Provstgaard, Nissen Kristensen, Højbjerg, Hjulmand, Daramy, Damsgaard, Daghim, Højlund.
Subs: Jungdal, Hogsberg, Nelsson, Froholdt, Isaksen, Jorgensen, Skov Olsen, Bidstrup, Nartey, Gaaei, Hogh, Jorgensen.
Portugal (4-3-3): Costa; Mendes, Veiga, Rúben Dias, Cancelo; Vitinha, Neves, Fernandes; Leão, Ramos, Neto.
Subs: Dalot, Araujo, Tavares, Palhinha, Bernardo Silva, Inacio, Trincao, Fabio Silva, Soares.
With Ronaldo quitting the squad, Ruben Dias is installed as captain and Leão has taken the No 7 shirt!
More pre-match reading: Craig Bellamy said he didn’t recognise his Wales side in their poor defeat to Denmark. Ståle Solbakken, Norway’s head coach for the past six years, said “everything’s fine” with Haaland, who has scored three goals in his past two matches, and played down the idea that the City verdict has been a distraction.
Ødegaard is a doubt for the Wales game but we’ll have confirmed line-ups for tonight’s matches shortly.
Really enjoyed this piece by Porto-based Miguel Dantas, who sheds some light on how Portuguese media and fans are reacting to Ronaldo walking out on Jorge Jesus’ squad.
Ronaldo’s fans are firmly behind him, defending him fiercely on social media. Much of the general public, though, feels the player has turned his back on the national team. That was the message splashed in big letters across the front page of O Jogo, one of Portugal’s leading sports newspapers.
Across the Portuguese media, most newspapers and commentators have sided with the view that Ronaldo behaved selfishly. There are, however, some voices – particularly in newspapers and television outlets in which Ronaldo is a shareholder – who have turned their criticism towards Jesus, accusing him of ingratitude and of indefensibly going back on his word.
Preamble
Quite the maelstrom of international football tonight, with off-pitch drama circling many of the players involved (and one who is not).
You have to feel for new Portugal manager Jorge Jesus, a 72-year-old who knows more than most that time waits for no man, but has apparently had a hard time explaining to Cristiano Ronaldo that at the age of 41 and woefully out of form, he cannot expect to start every single game for one of the best international teams in the world.
Jesus has – at least publicly – been respectful to Ronaldo, starting him in the win over Wales and “resting” the veteran in the impressive 2-1 victory over Norway – Ronnie’s replacement, Gonçalo Ramos, scored the winner for Portugal. If that justified Jesus’ decision in many people’s eyes, it certainly didn’t go down with Ronaldo, who has now left the Portugal camp in a huff private jet (and which presumably suits Jesus just fine).
Now former Portugal manager Roberto Martínez made the mistake of staying blindly loyal to Ronaldo, keeping his captain on the pitch for the full 90 minutes in all but one of the five matches at the World Cup, and paid the price in losing his job to Jesus. Save for a couple of goals over World Cup minnows Uzbekistan – Ronaldo has only managed one goal (a penalty) and received one red card in the eight games since last November. Even if he was involved tonight against a very strong Denmark team, it is likely he would not get any closer to his 1,000 goal target. However, if Portugal lose to the Danes, the noise clamouring for Ronaldo’s return will be deafening.
Elsewhere, as the talisman of beleaguered Manchester City, all eyes will be on Erling Haaland to see if his club’s crisis is affecting his football. Wales v Norway is an intriguing game for a number of reasons, but one that Craig Bellamy could really do with winning – Wales are without a victory in nearly a year.
Jürgen Klopp’s tenure as Germany manager has gotten off to a rocky-ish start with a draw and Sunday’s home loss to Greece. The former Liverpool boss will hope for better against Serbia tonight but regrettably, it’s off-field issues that have dominated the headlines. Honestly, what is wrong with people?
Sandwiched between two controversial games against Israel, the Republic of Ireland face Austria in Dublin this evening. The 3-0 win over Israel last Sunday, went ahead after a majority of their squad voted to play on the eve of the away fixture in Hungary. Media reports indicated that the squad was fractured after the meeting and vote, and that goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu had been insulted by teammates over his decision to withdraw “as a person or principle”. The goalkeeper is available for tonight, but will not take part on Sunday in the rematch with Israel, which the Football Association of Ireland has moved to Serbia behind closed doors.
So, that’s the background – some of it important, some of it less so – to at least some of tonight’s games. Let’s see if we can enjoy the footy. Seven games in total. I’ll do my best to keep abreast of all of them, but only have two eyes and two hands to type with.
Wales v Norway
Denmark v Portugal
Germany v Serbia
Republic of Ireland v Austria
Greece v Netherlands
Israel v Kosovo
Malta v Gibraltar
Kick-offs: 7.45pm BST
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2026/oct/01/wales-norway-denmark-portugal-germany-serbia-nations-league-live
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