Mesmerising Kylian Mbappe led France’s rout of Iceland in Euro 2020 qualifiers on Monday, but Cristiano Ronaldo hobbled off in Portugal’s disappointing draw with Serbia and racist abuse overshadowed five-star England in Montenegro.
Mbappe scored one and set up two more as the reigning World champion crushed Iceland 4-0 at the Stade de France to move top of Group H in Euro 2020 qualifying. The result gives France six points from its first two matches and puts it ahead of Turkey, which also won 4-0 on Monday, on goal difference.
In Group A, England, fresh from a 5-0 demolition of the Czech Republic, was forced to come from behind in a 5-1 win over Montenegro. But the impressive victory for the Three Lions was overshadowed by allegations of racist abuse in Podgorica.
It was a different story in Lisbon as champion Portugal notched up a second draw, 1-1 at home to Serbia.
If the result wasn’t disappointing enough, captain Ronaldo hobbled off after 30 minutes with no word on whether the five-time Ballon d’Or winner would be fit for to play for his club Juventus in the first leg of its Champions League quarterfinal at Ajax on April 10.
The results: Group A: Montenegro 1 (Vesovic 18) lost to England 5 (Keane 30, Barkley 39, 59, Kane 71, Sterling 81); Kosovo 1 (Zeneli 61) drew with Bulgaria 1 (Bozhikov 39).
Group B: Portugal 1 (Danilo 42) drew with Serbia 1 (Tadic 7-pen); Luxembourg 1 (Turpel 34) lost to Ukraine 2 (Tsygankov 40, Rodrigues 90-og).
Group H: Andorra 0 lost to Albania 3 (Sadiku 21, Balaj 87, Abrashi 90); France 4 (Umtiti 12, Giroud 68, Mbappe 78, Griezmann 84) bt Iceland 0; Turkey 4 (Kaldirim 24, Tosun 26, 54, Ayhan 70) bt Moldova 0 .