Republic of Ireland v Luxembourg, Serbia v Portugal: World Cup qualifying – live!

Peep peep! It’s half time in the four evening games. Portugal and Malta are having a very good night; Ireland are at risk of humiliation.

Group A

• Serbia 0-2 Portugal
• Republic of Ireland 0-0 Luxembourg

Group E

• Czech Republic 0-0 Belgium

Group H

Republic of Ireland 0-0 Luxembourg Rodrigues, 30 yards out, spots Bazunu off his line and booms an up and under towards goal. Bazunu backpedals desperately and just manages to push the ball clear from under the crossbar. In the end it was a very good save.

Republic of Ireland 0-0 Luxembourg Browne breaks into the area, taking Cullen’s cross in his stride, but his touch is slightly heavy and he runs the ball out of play under pressure from the keeper Moris.

Diogo Jota gets his second. It was another accomplished header, flicked into the far corner from Cedric’s cross. Expertly done.

Republic of Ireland 0-0 Luxembourg Ireland are really struggling to create chances. Anthony Moris made one terrific save, but apart from that he has had very little to do.

Republic of Ireland 0-0 Luxembourg Ireland’s tempo has been far too slow in the first half hour. If they’re not careful this could turn into a very difficult night.

“What are the odds of Malta winning?” wonders Peter Oh. “I bet no one expected Slovakia to have Gambin problems today.”

Republic of Ireland 0-0 Luxembourg Ireland certainly aren’t having this all their own way. Luxembourg look a confident, well-organised side; Ireland, understandably, look nervous.

Slovakia 0-2 Malta To put this scoreline in context, Slovakia are 36th in the Fifa world rankings. Malta are 176th.

Sensational stuff in Trnava! The teenager Alexander Satariano has put Malta 2-0 ahead with a majestic header from Ryan Camenzuli’s excellent cross.

Republic of Ireland 0-0 Luxembourg A great chance for Ireland. Robinson beats his man on the left and hammers a superb low cross into the six-yard box. Collins slides it towards goal and Moris makes a brilliant reaction save with his legs.

Newport’s Luke Gambin has put Malta ahead in Trnava with a beautiful long-range curler!

The latest scores in the four evening games

Group A

Serbia 0-1 Portugal

Republic of Ireland 0-0 Luxembourg

Group E

Czech Republic 0-0 Belgium

Group H

Slovakia 0-0 Malta

Portugal take an early lead in Belgrade. It was a simple goal, expertly created and finished. Bernardo Silva, on the right corner of the box, curled a deep cross towards Diogo Jota, who beat Marko Dmitrovic with a precise downward header. He is such an accomplished finisher.

Republic of Ireland 0-0 Luxembourg It’s been a confident start from Luxembourg in Dublin. Vincent Thill, in particular, looks like he fancies it, and himself.

Czech Republic 0-0 Belgium It is hooning down in Prague. That’s all.

Ireland 0-0 Luxembourg The young goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu gets a nice early touch, saving comfortably from Vincent Thill’s long-range shot.

Peep peep! The four evening games are under way. Goals, please!

Here’s a round up of the earlier games, including another brilliant win for Turkey.

“Hoping for a draw between Czech Republic and Belgium,” says Matt Dony, “although I’m expecting a comfortable Belgium win. They’re probably on a mission, still smarting after conceding the greatest team goal in the history of international football…”

Full time: Croatia 1-0 Cyprus Mario Pasalic’s 40th-minute goal settled matters in Rijeka.

Full time: Norway 0-3 Turkey A sensational result for Turkey, who have now tonked their two main rivals in group G.

Full time: Belarus 4-2 Estonia A fine win for Belarus, who came from behind twice and then ran away with the game in the last 10 minutes.

Full time: Netherlands 2-0 Latvia Peep peep! A comfortable and much-needed win for the Netherlands. Steven Berghuis scored a beauty in the first half; Luuk de Jong applied his noggin for the second.

Croatia 1-0 Cyprus Croatia, the runners up in 2018, still lead through Mario Pasalic’s first-half goal. But they haven’t made the best start to the qualification campaign: they lost in Slovenia on Wednesday and are now labouring to victory against Cyprus.

GOAL! Belarus 4-2 Estonia (Lisakovich 83) Vitali Lisakovich gets his second!

GOAL! Belarus 3-2 Estonia (Savitski 81) Pavel Savitski has put Belarus ahead for the first time in the game!

Norway 0-3 Turkey It gets worse for Norway: the substitute Kristian Thorstvedt has been given a straight red card for a studs-up tackle.

The teenage goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu makes his senior debut.

Republic of Ireland (3-5-2) Bazunu; Coleman, O’Shea, Clark; Doherty, Cullen, Knight, Browne, Stevens; Collins, Robinson.

Luxembourg (3-4-1-2) Moris; Jans, Chanot, Mahmutovic; O Thill, C Martins, Barreiro, M Martins; V Thill; Rodrigues, Sinani.

Czech Republic (4-1-4-1) Vaclik; Coufal, Celustka, Kudela, Boril; Holes; Provod, Soucek, Barak, Jankto; Krmencik.

Belgium (3-4-2-1) Courtois; Alderweireld, Denayer, Vertonghen; Castagne, Tielemans,, Dendoncker, Chadli; De Bruyne, Mertens; Lukaku.

The Netherlands have missed umpteen chances but they should be safe now. Luuk de Jong has scored the second with a thumping near-post header from a corner.

Serbia (3-4-1-2) Dmitrovic; Milenkovic, S Mitrovic, Pavlovic; Lazovic, Milinkovic-Savic, Gudelj, Kostic; Tadic; Vlahovic, A Mitrovic.

Portugal (4-2-3-1) Lopes; Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias, Fonte, Cedric; Sergio Oliveira, Danilo; B Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Jota; Ronaldo.

It gets better for Turkey! Ozan Tufan has scored his second of the game to put them 3-0 up in Malaga.

Norway 0-2 Turkey The Turks have continued their spectacular start to the qualification campaign. They beat the Netherlands 4-2 on Wednesday, and now they lead 2-0 against Norway thanks to goals from Ozan Tufan and Leicester’s Caglar Soyuncu.

Netherlands 1-0 Latvia The home side lead through a cracking goal from Steven Berghuis in the 32nd minute.

<Big Brother bloke> Day three, and the battle for places at Qatar 2022 is hottin’ up</Big Brother bloke>. Okay, that’s a big fat lie. It’s not even lukewarm yet, but some of today’s matches could look extremely significant when the qualification groups are completed in November. Serbia v Portugal is likely to have a bearing on who wins Group A; in the same group, Republic of Ireland desperately need to beat Luxembourg and end their 18-month winless run.

Those games kick off at 7.45pm, as does the intriguing match between the Czech Republic and Belgium in Group E. But there are some important games going on as we speak, so let’s proceed directly to a list of the latest scores:

Group A

• Serbia v Portugal (7.45pm)
• Republic of Ireland v Luxembourg (7.45pm)

Group E

• Belarus 1-2 Estonia (5pm)
• Czech Republic v Belgium (7.45pm)

Group G

• Montenegro 4-1 Gibraltar (FT)
• Netherlands 1-0 Latvia (5pm)
• Norway 0-2 Turkey (5pm)

Group H

• Russia 2-1 Slovenia (FT)
• Croatia 1-0 Cyprus (5pm)
• Slovakia v Malta (7.45pm)