The two-legged World Cup play-off between Sweden and Portugal had been portrayed as a grudge match between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo and while Ibrahimovic bagged a double, it was Ronaldo who stole the show with a devastating display of attacking football.
His four goals over the two legs, including a second-leg hat-trick ensured Paulo Bento's men qualified for the World Cup in Brazil next year and consigned the 28-year-old to the history books, equalling the national Portuguese record for goals scored at international level.
Not content with sending his national team to Brazil 2014, Ronaldo then set Real Madrid on their way to an emphatic victory over Liga side Almeria.
Goal's Spanish expert Ben Hayward says: "Although he ended up with a slight injury after scoring the opener for Real Madrid at Almeria on Saturday, this was a wonderful week for Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese fired his nation to Brazil 2014 almost
single-handedly as he hit a brilliant hat-trick in Solna on Tuesday to
deny Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sweden, having also netted the winner in the
sides' first-leg play-off match in Lisbon the previous Friday.
Those goals saw him draw level with
Pauleta as Portugal's all-time top goalscorer (on 47 international
strikes) and the 28-year-old now has 67 goals for club and country in
2013. With Ballon d'Or voting extended to the end of the month, he is
also now the big favourite to claim the prestigious prize ahead of
Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery and Barcelona's Lionel Messi.
No comments:
Post a Comment