Portugal routs Luxembourg in record 9-0 win without suspended Ronaldo. Drone delays Armenia-Croatia

By STEVE DOUGLAS
AP Sports Writer

Portugal didn’t need Cristiano Ronaldo to rack up its biggest-ever win in a competitive game. A 9-0 rout of Luxembourg in European Championship qualifying was achieved without Ronaldo because the five-time world player of the year was suspended because of an accumulation of yellow cards in earlier Group J games. It was Portugal’s sixth straight win in qualifying. Croatia climbed atop Group D by beating Armenia 1-0 away thanks to Andrej Kramarić’s goal. The game was briefly delayed when a drone carrying the flag of Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway Armenian-populated region of Azerbaijan, flew over the field. The incident comes amid soaring tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan and will likely lead to a UEFA disciplinary case.