West Ham United's Jose Fonte helps Portugal to vital FIFA World Cup qualifying win

Jose Fonte

 

Jose Fonte helped Portugal to a vital FIFA World Cup qualifying win in Latvia on Friday evening.

The West Ham United centre-half kept a welcome clean sheet as the UEFA Euro 2016 winners completed a deserved 3-0 win in the Baltic State.

Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring in Riga four minutes before half-time before adding a second 18 minutes into the second half, taking his haul of international goals to 73 in 139 appearances for his country.

After Ronaldo took his personal tally to eleven goals in six qualifying matches, Porto striker Andre Silva added a third to complete a victory that keeps Portugal second in Group B, three points behind leaders Switzerland.

Fonte now has 23 caps to his name and will add to his tally when the Iberian nation head to the FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia later this month.

There, Portugal face New Zealand, Mexico and the host nation in the group-stage of the tournament, which sees the seven continental champions and host nation face-off in a World Cup warm-up event.

The Swiss left Edimilson Fernandes on the bench as they completed a 2-0 win in the Faroe Islands, with Stoke City’s Xherdan Shaqiri and Arsenal’s Granit Xhaka on target.

The group winners will qualify automatically for Russia 2018, the runners-up will go into a two-legged Play-Off.

The World Cup qualifying campaign will recommence in August, when Portugal travel to the Faroe Islands and Switzerland are away to Andorra.