{"id":201256,"date":"2025-10-15T07:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/201256\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T07:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:07:08","slug":"england-qualify-for-2026-world-cup-ronaldo-sets-record-as-portugal-held-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/201256\/","title":{"rendered":"England qualify for 2026 World Cup, Ronaldo sets record as Portugal held | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Kane scored twice as England thrashed Latvia 5-0 on Tuesday to secure qualification for the 2026 World Cup, while Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s Portugal were forced to wait to clinch their spot at the finals after being held 2-2 by Hungary.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, pro-Palestinian demonstrations prefaced Italy\u2019s vital win over Israel, and Spain took another step towards qualification with a big victory against Bulgaria.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Thomas Tuchel\u2019s England brushed aside Latvia in Riga to make it six wins from six in Group K and guarantee the top spot before their final two fixtures next month \u2013 they have 18 points and an unassailable seven-point lead over second-placed Albania.<\/p>\n

Anthony Gordon opened the scoring before Kane produced a lethal finish, and then netted a penalty to make it 3-0 at half-time \u2013 the Bayern Munich striker has 21 goals in 13 games this season for club and country.<\/p>\n

Maksims Tonisevs scored an own-goal and Eberechi Eze added the fifth, with England now able to look forward to December\u2019s draw for next year\u2019s finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes rarely that you qualify for a World Cup, so the mood is very, very good,\u201d said Tuchel.<\/p>\n

\"HarryKane scores England\u2019s third goal from the penalty spot against Latvia [Carl Recine\/Getty Images]Portugal held by Hungary despite Ronaldo scoring record<\/p>\n

All 12 group winners in Europe qualify directly for the World Cup, with the runners-up going on to the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Serbia are a point behind Albania after fighting back to win 3-1 in Andorra.<\/p>\n

Guillaume Lopez gave Andorra the lead with a stunning strike from inside the centre circle, which sailed over Serbia goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic.<\/p>\n

Christian Garcia\u2019s own-goal brought Serbia level, before Dusan Vlahovic headed them in front and Aleksandar Mitrovic netted a penalty.<\/p>\n

Portugal were on the brink of punching their ticket as they led Hungary 2-1 in stoppage time in Lisbon, knowing a win would confirm first place in Group F.<\/p>\n

Attila Szalai headed Hungary in front only for Ronaldo to turn in Nelson Semedo\u2019s driven cross to equalise midway through the first half.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo then converted a Nuno Mendes cross to give Portugal the lead in first-half stoppage time, taking the 40-year-old Al Nassr superstar to an all-time international record of 143 goals in 225 appearances for his country.<\/p>\n

He now holds the record for the most goals in World Cup qualifying, with 41, two more than retired Guatemala international Carlos Ruiz, on 39.<\/p>\n

However, Hungary snatched a draw when Liverpool\u2019s Dominik Szoboszlai finished from close range in injury time.<\/p>\n

That means Hungary remain five points behind Portugal, with two games left, and so, could still top Group F. Ireland, theoretically, could, too, after Evan Ferguson\u2019s header secured a 1-0 victory against Armenia, who had Tigran Barseghyan sent off.<\/p>\n

\"CristianoPortugal\u2019s Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring the first of his two goals against Hungary in their FIFA World Cup qualifying match at Estadio Jose Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal on October 14, 2025 [Pedro Nunes\/Reuters]Protests in Italy as Israel knocked out of qualifiers<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s meeting with Israel in Udine was prefaced by clashes between some pro-Palestinian demonstrators and police, as thousands more peacefully marched through the northern Italian city in anger at the hosting of a match they felt should not have been played.<\/p>\n

There have been calls for FIFA to exclude Israel from international competitions in response to the country\u2019s brutal two-year-long offensive in the Gaza Strip, which came after a cross-border assault carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

There was a huge security presence around the Bluenergy Stadium hosting the Group I fixture, won 3-0 by Italy. Israel\u2019s defeat ends their bid for 2026 World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n

The Azzurri are desperate to qualify for the World Cup, having failed to make it to the last two editions.<\/p>\n

Mateo Retegui converted a penalty in first-half stoppage time and scored again with a stunning hit on 74 minutes.<\/p>\n

Gianluca Mancini headed in a late third to ensure that Italy will finish at least second in the group, and are now just three points behind the leaders, Norway, with two games left.<\/p>\n

The teams meet next month, but Norway\u2019s superior goal difference means they remain primed to finish first. Estonia and Moldova drew 1-1 in the same group on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

European champions Spain have four wins from four in Group E after defeating Bulgaria 4-0 in Valladolid.<\/p>\n

Mikel Merino scored two headers and now has six goals in four games in qualifying. Atanas Chernev scored an own-goal before Mikel Oyarzabal converted a late penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have much further to go to get to the World Cup, but it\u2019s not done yet\u2026 I hope we keep winning,\u201d Merino told Spanish television.<\/p>\n

Spain are three points clear of Turkiye, who beat Georgia 4-1 at home, with Merih Demiral bagging a brace. Kenan Yildiz and Yunus Akgun also scored for them.<\/p>\n

\"Pro-PalestinianProtesters hold the edge of a large Palestinian flag as they gather in solidarity with Palestine, on the eve of the match between Italy and Israel for the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers, in Udine, northeastern Italy, on October 14, 2025 [Stefano Rellandini\/AFP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Kane scored twice as England thrashed Latvia 5-0 on Tuesday to secure qualification for the 2026 World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[591,218,59,52806,50,217,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-201256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-latvia","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}