Cristiano Ronaldo's hat trick gave 10-man Portugal a 3-2 win at Armenia in a 2016 European championship qualifier on Saturday.
Marcos Pizzelli scored from a free kick to give Armenia a surprise lead in the 14th minute, but Ronaldo converted a penalty to level in the 28th.
The Ballon d'Or holder then added two more goals in the 55th and 58th minutes to secure victory and keep Portugal top of Group I.
His second goal owed a great deal to some poor Armenia defending, with Robert Arzumanyan's attempts to shield a long punt back to keeper Roman Berezovsky ending in embarrassment as Ronaldo managed to get his foot in between them and nick the ball home.
Hrayr Mkoyan had also missed an attempted headed clearance just before that, and it was a similar story for Ronaldo's hat trick goal as Rumyan Hovsepyan's misjudged Rui Patricio's high kick forward.
After that it was all Ronaldo, though, the 30-year-old brilliantly bringing the ball down before racing towards goal and unleashing a thunderous 20-yard shot into the roof of the net for his fourth hat trick in his past seven competitive games.
Portugal's Tiago Cardoso was sent off with a second yellow card in the 62nd minute, and Mkoyan scored the hosts' second goal 10 minutes later to set up a nervy finish.
Denmark kept pace with Portugal by defeating Serbia 2-0.
Yussuf Poulsen opened the scoring in the 13th minute and Jakob Poulsen provided a late insurace goal as the Danes stayed two points behind the leaders.
The hosts might have won more convincingly had captain Daniel Agger not had a penalty saved in the latter stages of the first half.
Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski scored a hat trick in the last four minutes to lead Poland to a 4-0 victory over Georgia that left the Poles in control of Group D.
Lewandowski struck in the 89th minute and then twice in injury time as Poland finally put a realistic slant on a one-sided encounter at the Narodowy Stadium.
Arkadiusz Milik opened the scoring just after the hour when he finally beat superb Georgia goalkeeper Giorgi Loria with a long-range shot.
In the closing stages, Lewandowski first raced onto a Milik pass to smash past Loria before he headed home a cross from substitute Jakub Blaszczykowski. Milik was again the provider as Lewandowski put the seal on victory in the third minute of stoppage time.
Poland remain one point ahead of Germany, who found their form after the break to defeat Gibraltar 7-0 in Portugal with the help of a hat trick from Andre Schurrle.
The minnows held to World Cup champions to a 1-0 lead at half-time on Schurrle's first goal, and Bastian Schweinsteiger even saw his penalty saved.
But Germany took control in the second half with two more goals from Schurrle, two from Max Kruse, and one each from Ilkay Gundogan and Karim Bellarabi.
Also in Group D, Scotland rallied to earn a 1-1 draw with Republic of Ireland in Dublin, ensuring the Scots maintain a two-point lead over the Irish in what appears a battle for third spot behind Poland and Germany.
Ireland took the lead against the run of play when Stoke's Jonathan Walters pounced from close range, despite suspicions of offside, after David Marshall saved a Daryl Murphy header.
Scotland levelled when a shot from Shaun Maloney, who scored the winner when the sides met at Celtic Park in November, was deflected in off Irish skipper John O'Shea.
Kyle Lafferty and Oliver Norwood were denied late as Romania held on for a goalless draw in Northern Ireland to maintain their one-point edge over their opponents atop Group F.
Lafferty, whose deadly form has brought him five goals in the campaign, this time failed on his big 83rd-minute chance, Ciprian Tatarusanu making the save before pawing clear Norwood's goal-bound free kick moments later.
Zoltan Stieber scored in the 82nd minute to lift Hungary to a 1-0 win away to Finland.
Hungary strengthened their grip on third place in the group and kept the pressure on the top two.
Greece's disastrous qualifying campaign continued with a 2-1 defeat at the Faroe Islands, who moved into fourth place, five behind Hungary.
Hallur Hansson and Brandur Olsen scored either side of half-time for the hosts, and Greece could not find an equaliser after Socratis Papaststhopoulos's 84th-minute goal put them on the board.
The Greeks are bottom of Group F with just two points from six games, nine points adrift of Hungary.