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Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring one of two stoppage-time goals against Egypt. Photograph: Soccrates Images/Getty Images
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring one of two stoppage-time goals against Egypt. Photograph: Soccrates Images/Getty Images

Ronaldo to the rescue as stoppage-time goals grab win for Portugal over Egypt

This article is more than 6 years old

Captain heads two late goals to steal victory and Colombia come from two down to defeat France 3-2

Portugal’s captain, Cristiano Ronaldo, scored two stoppage-time goals to steal a 2-1 win over Egypt after Mohamed Salah had given the African side the lead in an entertaining World Cup warm-up in Switzerland on Friday. Salah scored with a thumping drive to put Egypt ahead early in the second half.

However, Ronaldo refused to be upstaged and he sneaked in behind his marker to head in Ricardo Quaresma’s cross in the 92nd minute. Not content with that, Ronaldo scored again with another header, once more from a Quaresma pass, with the final move of the game. There was initial confusion as the referee consulted the video assistant referee (VAR) system for a possible offside before allowing the goal.

France threw away a two-goal lead as they slumped to a 3-2 home defeat byo Colombia in a friendly at the Stade de France. Les Bleus were 2-0 up midway through the first half thanks to goals by Olivier Giroud and Thomas Lemar but Luis Muriel halved the deficit before the break with Radamel Falcao and Juan Quintero scoring in the second half.

Before kick-off there was a minute’s silence in memory of the three people killed in south-western France by a gunman who held up a car, fired on police and seized hostages in a supermarket earlier on Friday. France started with N’Golo Kanté and Blaise Matuidi as holding midfielders. Paul Pogba was left on the bench because of a muscle problem and a lack of playing time at Manchester United, according to the assistant coach Guy Stéphan. Pogba came on as a second-half substitute but made little impact.

Les Bleus enjoyed most of the possession and they were rewarded in the 11th minute when Giroud scored his 30th international goal as he knocked the ball in after David Ospina mishandled Lucas Digne’s cross from the left. It was Giroud’s ninth goal in the last nine games he has started for France. Lemar made it 2-0 in the 26th minute from inside the box after being set up by his former Monaco team-mate Kylian Mbappé, who had collected a fine back-heel from Antoine Griezmann.

But France lacked focus and two minutes later Hugo Lloris misjudged Muriel’s cross, which found the back of the net at the far post. The visitors were more active in the second half and Falcao beat Lloris in the 62nd minute as he latched on to a cross from James Rodríguez. Colombia sealed the win five minutes from time when Quintero converted a penalty after a Samuel Umtiti foul in the box.

Chelsea’s Victor Moses converted a second-half penalty to secure a 1-0 win for Nigeria away to Poland as both teams warmed up for the World Cup. Moses stroked the ball home from the spot in the 61st minute after winning a questionable penalty from the English referee Michael Oliver as the Nigerian took a tumble in the area after marginal contact with Marcin Kaminski.

Poland had a strong claim for a goal just before half-time when a sweeping Grzegorz Krychowiak free-kick looked to have crossed the goal-line before being cleared by Leon Balogun but the linesman ruled that the ball had not gone in. Nigeria’s teenage goalkeeper Francis Uzoho made a key save early in the second half to deny the Poland captain, Robert Lewandowski.

The win for Nigeria keeps up their run of positive results since they qualified for the World Cup. In their last friendly in Russia in November they beat Argentina 4-2. Poland face Senegal, Colombia and Japan in Group H at the finals while Nigeria take on Croatia, Iceland and Argentina.

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