Ronaldo nets double as Portugal book Euro 2012 passage

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Portugal beat 10-man Bosnia-Herzegovina 6-2 on Tuesday to qualify for the Euro 2012 finals.

With the playoff first leg in Bosnia tied 0-0, Portugal were looking for a fast start and got it as Real Madrid star Ronaldo netted early with a trademark free-kick.

A second from Manchester United’s Nani after 26 minutes looked to have eased Portugal’s path to Ukraine and Poland next year, but Zvezjdan Misimovic converted an early second-half penalty following Fabio Coentrao’s handball.

Ronaldo then scored a superb second to equal Luis Figo’s international record of 32 for Portugal and put his side 3-1 ahead.

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An incident-packed second half saw Bosnia lose Senad Lulic for a second yellow, but a goal from Emir Spahic gave them renewed hope against the nervy hosts.

However, a late double from Helder Postiga and a further strike from Miguel Veloso saw the Euro 2004 runners-up romp home in spectacular style.

They were joined in the finals, as expected, by the Republic of Ireland, who drew 1-1 with Estonia to seal a 5-1 aggregate victory after a decisive four-goal win Friday’s first leg.

The Irish – whose only previous appearance in the finals of a European Championship was in 1988 – opened the scoring through Stephen Ward after 32 minutes.

Estonia’s Konstantin Vassiljev equalized in the second half with a long-range shot which eluded goalkeeper Shay Given.

The Czech Republic booked a fifth successive Euro finals place with a 1-0 win in Montenegro.

The Czechs led 2-0 from the first leg in Prague, and a fine individual goal from Petr Jiracek in the 81st minute sealed their qualification.

It was a similar story in Croatia, where the home side, who led Turkey 3-0 from the first leg, played out a 0-0 draw to go through.