Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 25th goal of the season in Portugal's nervy 1-0 victory at home to Armenia, which has taken Fernando Santos's men into second place in Group I in the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.

Tiago had the game's first chance with a header from Nani's free kick, but the midfielder mistimed his jump and nodded over the bar.

The visitors defended deep and in numbers, but Henrikh Mkhitaryan led a 14th-minute counter-attack with a driving run that was halted by a despairing Ricardo Carvalho challenge which earned the veteran defender a yellow card.

From the resulting free kick, the Borussia Dortmund midfielder saw his deflected shot parried away by Rui Patricio.

Mkhitaryan continued to pose a threat with his pace and saw a cross spin into the side-netting after taking a big deflection off Raphael Guerreiro, before Danny sent a tame effort into the arms of Roman Berezovsky at the other end.

Ronaldo was relatively subdued in the opening quarter of the game, but it was only a matter of time before he came to life.

The 2013 Ballon d'Or winner fired a shot straight at Berezovsky before seeing his subsequent effort deflected narrowly over the bar.

Albania were content to soak up the pressure before pouring forward in numbers, and Mkhitaryan teed up Kamo Hovhannisyan for the game's best chance with a cleverly disguised through-ball, but the 22-year-old struck the ball at an advancing Patricio when one on one.

There was controversy shortly before the break as Pepe was shown a yellow card for tugging back his opponent, but replays seemed to show the Real Madrid defender stamping on the Armenian winger's chest too.

Portugal came out in the second half seemingly determined to find a way through a packed defence, and Nani's looping header hit the top of the crossbar in the 58th minute after a period of sustained pressure from the hosts.

Seconds before the winger's header, Varazdat Haroyan was incredibly lucky as the referee missed his mindless handball inside the box.

Portugal increasingly looked towards Ronaldo for inspiration, but the 29-year-old sent a poor free kick straight into the wall from 20 yards before scuffing a weak effort at Berezovsky from a similar range.

However, with their hopes of a win diminishing, Portugal's record goalscorer scrambled the ball over the line in the 72nd minute after the ball had been forced goalwards following a mistake by Taron Voskanyan.

Substitute Antonio Eder then contrived to miss from four yards out before hitting the foot of the post with a late header, but despite a late scare from Marcos Pineiro Pizzelli, Portugal held on to secure their second successive competitive win.