Portugal ease past Turkey to win last 16 spot
Portugal cruised to a 3-0 win against Turkey on Saturday and booked their spot in the Euro 2024 last 16 as Group F winners thanks to a Bernardo Silva strike, an own-goal by Samet Akaydin and a Bruno Fernandes tap-in. Silva scored his first goal in a major international tournament in the 21st minute when a cross from Nuno Mendes deflected off a Turkish defender to find the Manchester City forward ghosting alone in the area, who then smashed it past the goalkeeper to put the Portuguese ahead. Seven minutes later, Turkish defender Akaydin made a comical mistake as he tried to play the ball back to his goalkeeper who was out of position and there was nothing he could to stop it from rolling into the net despite their desperate attempts to keep it out. Portugal kept dominating and extended their lead after substitute Ruben Neves set Cristiano Ronaldo free with a long ball to beat the offside line and, after drawing in the goalkeeper, squared the ball for Fernandes who only had to tap it into an empty goal. The win lifts Portugal to a guaranteed first place in Group F on six points, three ahead Turkey in second and five ahead of Georgia and Czech Republic with one game to go. (Reuters)