The China Mail - Portugal book spot at 2026 World Cup as England stay perfect

Later, Italy must overturn the odds to pip opponents Norway to the global footballing showpiece in the United States, Canada and Mexico when the top sides in Group I meet at the San Siro.

After being held by Hungary and then stunned by Republic of Ireland last time out, Portugal sealed top spot in Group F at the third time of asking with a resounding win over bottom-side Armenia.

In the absence of the suspended Cristiano Ronaldo, star midfielders Bruno Fernandes and Joao Neves both scored hat-tricks as the Portuguese ran riot in Porto.

Renato Veiga, Goncalo Ramos and Francisco Conceicao were also on the scoresheet.

"The most important thing was qualifying for the World Cup," Paris Saint-Germain lynchpin Neves told RTP.

"For me, as I always say, the team always comes before the individual. I'm very happy to have scored my first goal for the national team, and my second and third as well."

Portugal will compete in a seventh consecutive edition of the World Cup, a tournament which the Euro 2016 champions are yet to win.

"We're at the World Cup! Let's go, Portugal!" Ronaldo posted on social media.

The striker could miss the start of the tournament depending on whether FIFA extend his suspension beyond the mandatory one-match ban he served against Armenia.

Ireland sewed up the play-off place in the group thanks to Troy Parrott's 96th-minute hat-trick goal handing them a 3-2 win over third-placed Hungary.

Daniel Lukacs gave the hosts the lead in Hungary after four minutes, before Parrott levelled from 12 yards shortly afterwards.

Barnabas Varga's 37th-minute goal looked to have been enough for Hungary to seal second spot until 23-year-old Parrott notched his fourth and fifth international goals this week.

Parrott was the hero with his brace in Thursday's 2-0 defeat of Portugal, and he struck to equalise again for Ireland with 10 minutes remaining in the Hungarian capital.

The AZ Alkmaar forward then sparked wild Irish celebrations as he prodded home Liam Scales's knockdown deep into injury time to send Heimir Hallgrimsson's side into March's play-offs.

- 'Favourites' -

France booked their place in next year's tournament in North America with a win over Ukraine earlier in the week, and a much-changed side concluded their campaign with a 3-1 win in Azerbaijan.

Renat Dadasov gave the home side a shock lead on four minutes before Jean-Philippe Mateta, Maghnes Akliouche and an own-goal by Azeri goalkeeper Shakhrudin Magomedaliyev took France to 16 points from their six outings.

Ukraine saw off Iceland 2-0 thanks to two strikes inside the final 10 minutes from Oleksandr Zubkov and Oleksii Hutsuliak to claim second place in Group D.

Thomas Tuchel's England completed a perfect group-stage performance as they won 2-0 against Albania to finish their campaign with a 100 percent record, featuring 22 goals scored and zero conceded.

"I think it's as good (a squad) as we've ever had," Kane told ITV. "I think when you look at the starting 11, you look at the players coming off the bench, we're going to go into the tournament as one of the favourites.

"It was an important win. You don't want to finish with a loss at the end of the year and then have to wait until March to play again. We can go away and enjoy this now."

It had seemed that England might finish their campaign on a slight down-note until Kane netted twice late on to make European history.

England are the first side from the continent to go through a World Cup qualifying campaign of at least six matches with a perfect record and no goals conceded, and have also not lost a World Cup qualifier in 39 games since 2009.

With Albania already assured of second place, Serbia beat Latvia 2-1 in a dead-rubber in Group K's other match.

E.Lau--ThChM