Alves secures Portugal win

Portugal will take a slender advantage into the second leg of their World Cup qualification play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina after Bruno Alves secured a 1-0 win in Lisbon.

A tightly-contested encounter was decided on the half-hour mark when Manchester United winger Nani crossed to the far post where Alves was on hand to head home.

Nani, who deputised on the wing in the absence of the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, was Portugal's most enterprising player.

However, the hosts' hopes of finding a second goal were continually thwarted by a disciplined display from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The visitors showed why only Spain were able to defeat them in the group stage and they could even have taken an away goal into Wednesday's second leg a minute from the end when Edin Dzeko headed against the crossbar before substitute Zlatan Muslimovic hit a post from the rebound.

While Bosnia-Herzegovina would have been enthused by their display, their hopes in the second leg will be undermined by bookings picked up by Emir Spahic, Elver Rahimic and Samir Muratovic which rules them out of Wednesday's game.