Northern Ireland keep Euro dreams alive with shocking win vs. Greece
Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time to give Portugal a 1-0 win over Denmark in a European Championship qualifier Tuesday night and put his team's campaign back on track after a 1-0 loss at home to Albania.
John O'Shea scored in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time of his 100th international appearance, lifting Ireland into a 1-1 tie at World Cup champion Germany, which lost 2-0 at Poland in its previous qualifier last weekend.
At Belgrade, a small drone dangling an Albanian banner and circling thefield touched off fighting between Serbian and Albanian players and fans, causing a qualifier between the nations to be called off in the 41st minute by English referee Martin Atkinson. A Serbian player grabbed the banner, and Albanian players tried to protect it. Several Serbian fans ran onto the field and clashed with Albanian players. The score was 0-0 at the time.
---
Group D
Toni Kroos scored in the 71st minute for Germany at Gelsenkirchen as Ireland joined Poland at the top of Group D with seven points from three matches.
''Brilliant result, first and foremost. OK, we had to live a little bit dangerously the last 10 or 15 minutes,'' O'Shea said. ''Yeah, look, without a doubt, it's an absolutely fairytale ending. It was incredible to get the 100th cap and score the goal to equalize against Germany, and hopefully to keep the momentum going to qualify for France.''
In Warsaw, Poland drew 2-2 with Scotland. Krzysztof Maczynski opened the scoring but Scotland took a 2-1 lead on goals by Shaun Maloney and Steven Naismith. Arkadiusz Milik scored the equalizer for Poland.
---
Group F
Northern Ireland won 2-0 in Greece for its third straight victory to stay on course to qualify for its first European Championship.
Jamie Ward got the early opener and Kyle Lafferty made it 2-0 at Karaskaki Stadium.
''We've sent out a massive statement tonight,'' said Lafferty, who has scored in all three matches.
New Greece coach Claudio Ranieri, who laughed off suggestions before the game that his job might be at risk, promised to shake up his side and ''fight on'' after his second home defeat left the 2004 European champions with just one point from three games.
In Helsinki, Romania's Bogdan Stancu scored twice in a 2-0 victory over Finland that moved his country into second place.
---
Group I
Ronaldo scored on a header in Copenhagen following Ricardo Quaresma's cross. A minutes before scoring, Ronaldo was given a yellow card for a foul on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
----
Group E
Switzerland earned its first points with a 4-0 win at San Marino.
Haris Seferovic scored in the 10th and 24th minutes, Blerim Dzemaili added another in the 30th and Xherdan Shaqiri completed the scoring in the 79th. San Marino goalkeeper Aldo Simoncelli stopped Ricardo Rodriguez's penalty kick in the 90th minute.
Switzerland, Estonia and Slovenia have three points each, three behind England and Lithuania lead. San Marino, ranked 208th by FIFA, remained last with zero points.
