Early hits by Vedat Muriqi and Zymer Bytyqi, the first penalty, put Kosovo in control. And although Shayne Lavery pulled back in the half, Muriqi’s second at the start of the second half should have ended, despite Dan Ballard’s late header. Northern Ireland’s winless streak in this tournament extended to 13 games after its last failure. The team entered League C Group 2 as the top after being relegated and Baraclough spoke boldly of aiming for 12 points from the June games, but has only won one of three games. The manager greeted with “cheerio” voices as he went to the visiting fans in Pristina. “It’s understandable,” Baraclough said afterwards. “They are here, they want to follow and watch a team… but what do we do with players who bleed and build for the future? “We knew we had to go through a certain pain and we are as it goes,” the 51-year-old added. “You will see improvement and you have seen a difference between the first two games and that tonight.” In the top division, Spain won its first Nations League victory in this campaign after a 1-0 victory over Switzerland in Geneva. Pablo Sarabia scored the decisive goal in the 13th minute after a return to Marcos Giorente’s cross, as Luis Enrique’s team repulsed the consecutive draws. “Professional football has to do with results,” said the Spanish coach. “We managed to impose our style.” Scorer Sarabia, meanwhile, conceded “it was time to win. “These three points are valuable to us.” Pablo Sarabia directs the ball over Jan Sommer for Spain’s winning goal. Photo: RvS.Media/Monika Majer / Getty Images Portugal maintained their strong start to the Nations League with a 2-0 home victory over the Czech Republic. The hosts opened the scoring in Lisbon after 33 minutes, when Bernardo Silva set up his Manchester City teammate, Joao Cancello, with the back shooting from a close angle. Silva gave another assist five minutes later, when he released Gonzalo Guedes and the winger made a shot into the net. The 2019 champions took seven points from their first three games to open a lead over Spain in Group A2. In League B, Sweden lost to Serbia 1-0 at home. Luka Jovic scored the winner shortly before halftime, as Sweden lost their second consecutive home game. Group B4 champions Norway drew 0-0 at home to Slovenia with 10 players. In League C, Gibraltar scored a remarkable result as they drew 1-1 with Bulgaria. Otherwise, Greece beat Cyprus 3-0 and Georgia beat Northern Macedonia by the same score.
