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European champions Spain secured their place in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Nations League with a comfortable 3-0 win over Serbia on Tuesday, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal were frustrated in a 0-0 draw with Scotland.

Spain, also reigning Nations League champions, became the second team to secure a place in the quarter-finals, following in Germany’s footsteps by moving to 10 points from a possible 12 in Group A4.

Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, the two wing stars of Spain’s triumphant Euro 2024 campaign, were absent against Serbia on a rainy night in the Andalusian city of Cordoba.

But that didn’t matter as La Roja took the lead through Aymeric Laporte’s early header and then saved Alvaro Morata’s missed penalty early in the second half.

Captain Morata made it 2-0 with a fine finish in the 65th minute and Alex Baena, who played at the European Championships before playing for the Spanish national team that won Olympic gold, made it 3-0 with a free kick. Serbia finished the game with 10 men after defender Strahinja Pavlovic was sent off.

“We are in another final phase and that is the most important thing – it may seem simple, but we have been in all these final phases for the last few years and that deserves recognition,” Morata told state broadcaster TVE.

Denmark has the best chance of progressing against Spain after drawing 2-2 away to group-supporting Switzerland.

The Danes fell behind twice, with Remo Freuler’s opener almost immediately canceled out by Gustav Isaksen, but Zeki Amdouni put the Swiss back in front with a penalty in first-half stoppage time.

But Christian Eriksen scored in the 69th minute and ensured Denmark left St. Gallen with a point.

Portugal dropped points in Group A1 for the first time as they had to make do with Scotland at Hampden.

In his 216th international appearance, Ronaldo made his 200th start for his country, more than 21 years after his first.

However, the 39-year-old failed to add to his 133 goals for Portugal and stormed off the field amid constant tirades of abuse at the referees.

The home side needed a miracle save from goalkeeper Craig Gordon to deny Bruno Fernandes a winner for Portugal in the closing stages, but held on to secure their first point in the top tier of the Nations League.

This ended a run of four consecutive competitive defeats, but they have now won just once in their last 16 games – in a friendly against Gibraltar.

“Their goalkeeper was incredible. We couldn’t score but the performance was positive,” Portugal coach Roberto Martinez told UEFA.com.

“Results are the result of performances and tonight we deserved to win.”

Croatia sit second in the group behind Portugal after a thrilling 3-3 draw with Poland in Warsaw, which featured five first-half goals.

Inter Milan’s Piotr Zielinski, who wore the captain’s armband while Robert Lewandowski was on the bench, gave Poland an early lead.

However, Borna Sosa equalized and further goals from Petar Sucic and Martin Baturina gave Croatia a 3-1 lead after 26 minutes.

Nicola Zalewski scored the goal in stoppage time in the first half and Sebastian Szymanski secured the draw for Poland with a great goal midway through the second half.

Croatia finished the game with 10 men after goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic was shown a red card for catching Lewandowski outside the penalty area.

In the third-tier League C, Northern Ireland moved to the top of Group 3 with a 5-0 win over Bulgaria in Belfast.

Standard Liège’s Isaac Price in Belgium was the hero with a hat-trick as the 21-year-old became the country’s youngest ever goalscorer to score three goals in a game. Northern Ireland’s last hat-trick scorer was David Healy in 2007.

An own goal from goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov and a late shot from Josh Magennis rounded off the scoring, while captain Kiril Despodov missed a penalty for Bulgaria.

Belarus and Luxembourg drew 1-1 in the same group, while in Group C2 there were wins for Romania and Kosovo against Lithuania and Cyprus respectively.