Portugal proved they can flourish without their talismanic forward Cristiano Ronaldo, at least on the pitch, in beating France to win Euro 2016. Coach Fernando Santos has been trying to reduce their dependency on Ronaldo and his team's ability to live without their alltime leading scorer and captain faced its ultimate test when he was went off injured after 25 minutes of Sunday's final. They passed with flying colours. Relieved of any obligation to pass to Ronaldo every time he was free or allow him to take free kicks, Portugal's players appeared less inhibited without him on the pitch.
Substitute Ricardo Quaresma turned in three minutes from the end of extra time as Portugal edged a tense encounter to book a UEFA Euro 2016 quarter-final date with Poland. After 116 minutes in which the teams failed to muster a single shot on target, Ivan Perisic headed against the upright.
Images from the football matches played across Europe on Sunday
News of all that transpired on and off the football field.
On a day of frenetic spending that took the Premier League total to a record far above one billion pounds ($1.29 billion), Antonio Conte's side also missed out on two of their other targets - Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Fernando Llorente.
Debutant Helder Costa opened the scoring on his international debut for an experimental Portugal who made 10 changes from the team which started the 3-2 Nations League win in Poland on Thursday.
The Bavarians have now won the German league title a record 29 times.
IMAGES from the soccer matches played across European leagues over the weekend.
Centre forward Eder, who scored the winning goal in the Euro 2016 final against France, was among 10 players from that squad omitted from Santos's list. Other unlucky players included midfielders Andre Gomes and Renato Sanches, forward Nani and defender Eliseu.
Cristiano Ronaldo converted one penalty, missed another and also scored from open play as Portugal beat Latvia 4-1 in their World Cup qualifier on Sunday. On a typically dramatic night for the Portugal captain, Ronaldo fired the European champions ahead from his first spot kick of the evening in the first half, but missed a chance to double their lead when his second effort struck the post.
LaLiga leaders Barcelona's pursuit of a 27th Spanish title gained momentum after a 2-1 comeback win over Real Madrid.
Barcelona's Luis Suarez netted twice for a 2-1 win over 10-man Atletico Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final, first leg on Tuesday after the visitors' Fernando Torres opened the scoring and was later sent off.
Jubilant fans thronged central Belgrade, bringing traffic at the main Republic Square to a halt as they waved Serbian flags and hooted their car horns.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football fieLd
Images from football friendlies played on Wednesday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
France substitute Kylian Mbappe engineered two late goals to rescue a 2-2 draw against Iceland and spare the blushes of the world champions in their friendly.
It would be unfair to expect India to bedazzle crowds with eye-catching football. This team is built around stability, writes Dhruv Munjal
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Images from the UEFA Champions League matches played on Wednesday.
Hegerberg hat-trick fires Lyon to fourth straight Champions League
Atletico Madrid sealed top spot in Champions League Group D after second half goals from Frenchmen Kevin Gameiro and Antoine Griezmann but Napoli were held to a 0-0 Champions League draw at home by Dynamo Kiev.
Switzerland struck twice in quick succession to stun Euro 2016 champions Portugal 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday and hand them a first competitive defeat in two years under coach Fernando Santos.
