London, 14 November 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for the first time in his international career as Portugal suffered a shock 2-0 defeat in their World Cup qualifier against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin.

The 40-year-old, for whom next summer's tournament will be his last, was initially shown a yellow card for swinging his elbow into defender Dara O'Shea's back on the hour mark.

However, the punishment was upgraded after VAR advised referee Glenn Nyberg to review the incident on the pitchside monitor and the Portugal captain was shown a red card in his 226th appearance.

Portugal were already trailing to two Troy Parrott goals and although Ronaldo will be banned for Sunday's match against Armenia – beaten 1-0 by Hungary – Roberto Martinez's side should still confirm their progress to the United States next summer.

France have already done that after Kylian Mbappe scored his 400th career goal in a 4-0 win over Ukraine.

The Real Madrid forward took his tally to seven in his last six internationals with second-half goals either side of a strike from Bayern Munich's Michael Olise – the latter bringing up his personal landmark – with Liverpool's Hugo Ekitike finishing things off late on.

Albert Gudmundsson and Sverrir Ingason scored Iceland's goals in a 2-0 win over Azerbaijan which moved them into second above Ukraine.

Norway have all but qualified for a first World Cup in 28 years as Erling Haaland and Alexander Sorloth both scored twice in a 4-1 win over Estonia, a seventh qualifying victory in succession.

They are three points ahead of Italy, who left it late to beat Moldova with Gianluca Mancini and Francesco Pio Esposito both scoring beyond the 88th minute, with a goal difference 17 better.

Serbia's hopes of catching second-placed Albania are over after they lost 2-0 to England, who have already qualified from Group K, and Albania beat Andorra 1-0.

Photo: EPA