{"id":246375,"date":"2016-09-07T06:12:28","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T06:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=246375"},"modified":"2016-09-07T06:12:28","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T06:12:28","slug":"euro-2016-winners-portugal-beaten-by-swiss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/09\/euro-2016-winners-portugal-beaten-by-swiss\/","title":{"rendered":"EURO 2016 winners, Portugal, beaten by Swiss"},"content":{"rendered":"
Switzerland beat European champions Portugal 2-0 in their opening World Cup 2018 Group B qualifier on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Breel Embolo and Ahmed Mehmedi scored first-half goals for the hosts, who had Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka sent off in stoppage time.<\/p>\n
Portugal were missing Cristiano Ronaldo, with the Real Madrid forward injured since July’s Euro 2016 final.<\/p>\n
Beaten finalists France <\/b>got their own campaign off to a slow start with a 0-0 Group A draw in Belarus<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in that group, Sweden <\/b>held the Netherlands <\/b>to a 1-1 draw with a Wesley Sneijder goal cancelling out a chip from Marcus Berg, while Bulgaria<\/b>beat Luxembourg <\/b>4-3 thanks to an injury-time winner from former Aston Villa winger Aleksandar Tonev.<\/p>\n
Former Everton boss Roberto Martinez won his first competitive match as Belgium manager with a 3-0 victory in Cyprus.<\/p>\n
Martinez’s side had been booed by some Belgian fans after a 2-0 defeat by Spain in a friendly last week, but a double from Toffees striker Romelu Lukaku and a late third from Yannick Carrasco gave them three points.<\/p>\n
Despite the comfortable win they are third in their group after the first round of matches after former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko was among the scorers as Bosnia-Herzegovina <\/b>hammered Estonia <\/b>5-0 and Greece <\/b>eased to a 4-1 win in Gibraltar<\/b>.<\/p>\n