CRISTIANO RONALDO scored his 700th career goal but couldn’t keep Portugal from losing 2-1 to Ukraine in qualifying for the 2020 European Championship on Monday.

Ukraine qualified for Euro 2020 with the victory, its sixth in seven matches in Group B. Portugal remains in second place and will need to keep battling for its spot in the remaining rounds.

“We played more with the heart than with the head, especially after 2-1,” Portugal coach Fernando Santos said. “We created opportunities but didn’t score.”

Ronaldo netted his milestone goal for club and country by converting a penalty kick in the 72nd minute, when the defending European champions already trailed by two goals. It was the seventh goal in six qualifying matches for Ronaldo, and his 95th overall with Portugal.

“The records come naturally,” Ronaldo said. “I don’t go after them, they come after me. I’m already thinking about tomorrow, about scoring No. 701 in my next match.”

Ronaldo has also scored 450 goals for Real Madrid, 118 for Manchester United, 32 for his current club Juventus, and five for Sporting Lisbon.

Roman Yaremchuk had put Ukraine ahead less than 10 minutes into the match, and Andriy Yarmolenko added to the lead near the half-hour mark.

Ukraine played with 10 men after defender Taras Stepanenko was sent off with a second yellow card for the handball that led to the penalty converted by Ronaldo.

Portugal kept pressing until the end but couldn’t find the equalizer. Ronaldo had a few good chances, and Danilo came close with a long-range shot that struck the crossbar in stoppage time.

“We created enough situations to win the game,” Danilo said. “There are days like these, when the ball just doesn’t want to go in. We just need to win the next two games to reach Euro 2020.”

Portugal’s last two qualifying matches are against Lithuania and at Luxembourg.

Meanwhile, France spoiled a chance at home to put one foot in Euro 2020 after conceding late in the match and settling for a 1-1 draw with Turkey.

Despite playing without a lot of starters – Kylian Mbappe, Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante, and Hugo Lloris are all out injured – France still was strong in the first half and peppered Turkey with 12 shots.

England’s UEFA 2020 qualifier against Bulgaria was stopped twice due to racist chanting after the team had previously stated they were concerned about potential incidents in the leadup to the match.

Those concerns proved very valid, as the first half of Monday’s clash was marred by racial abuse, with play temporary halted due to the behavior of home supporters, prompting Bulgaria captain Ivelin Popov to address home supporters during the half-time break.

England went on to win the match 6-0 behind braces from Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling while Marcus Rashford and Harry Kane also contributed goals.

FA Chairman Greg Clarke said that he is proud of how the team responded by proving they were “stronger than racism.”

“I would like to see a stringent review by UEFA, I know they take racism very, very seriously, so if we say zero tolerance, zero tolerance means zero tolerance,” he said.

(SD-Agencies)