The FIFA World Cup qualifying play-off match between
Portugal and Sweden, from the very start, was being billed as a straight
showdown between Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It could easily have
been Ronaldo against the rest of the world and he would still have won – he was
just that good on the night of second leg of the tie.
Portugal will be heading to Brazil in 2014 with accusations
of being a team driven by one man ringing in their ears but when the player in
question can drive his team and deliver performances like the one he did on
Tuesday night at the Friends Arena in Stockholm, they wouldn’t care a bit.
Sweden took some time to get going in the second leg and by
the time Ronaldo scored his first goal from a brilliant counter attack, they
looked well and truly out of the game. It was only the brilliance of
Ibrahimovic that got them back on level terms on aggregate but still needing
one more goal to overcome the deficit of away goals.
Yet, the Portuguese talisman was not about to allow his
teammates go through the last 25 odd minutes defending for their lives. He
slotted home his second after receiving a ball from Hugo Almeida and knocked it
past a hapless Andreas Isaksson in the Sweden goal to leave the hosts needing
two more goals in 15 minutes to qualify for the World Cup. But Ronaldo wasn’t
finished, he didn’t want to leave any doubt in the minds of his doubters that
it was indeed his night, his tie and his year.
With the Swedes struggling to contain the Portuguese, now
pressing a lot higher, Ronaldo found the space to round Isaksson and slot in
his third of the night and his fourth of the tie to take the game beyond any
question. Not only did it end Sweden’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup
next year, but in all probability, put the final nail in the coffin of the
World Cup dreams of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
It was easily one of the biggest hat-tricks on the
international stage, delivered on one of the most momentous occasions for
Portuguese football in the last two years. When they needed a player with the
attitude for a big game, the biggest one of them delivered.
There should never have been any doubts about Ronaldo at
all. He has already scored 66 goals in 2013, excelling his already higher
standards. Whole Argentine stalwart Lionel Messi has struggled to cope with
various injuries over the past few months, Ronaldo has gone from strength to
strength for both club and country. His three goals on Tuesday took him to 47
goals for Portugal, equaling the record set by Pauleta as the country’s all
time leading goal scorer.
It cannot be considered
as a fault of Messi that the qualification from the CONMEBOL is so easy
for the likes of Argentina and Brazil but Ronaldo has delivered on every occasion
his country needed him, in do or die situations that make or break the best of
them. And their performances have also been widely different this year. While
Messi has not had the best of times for Barcelona, Ronaldo has been the knight
in shining armor for both Real Madrid and Portugal and Tuesday night topped it
all.
And with FIFA reopening the voting for the Ballon d’Or on
the night for a further nine days, Ronaldo might as well win it on the back of
that performance alone. Franck Ribery is, no doubt, still the favorite for the
award but as we approach the 200 day countdown for the sport’s flagship event
in Brazil, the most in-form player at the moment might just have the edge now.
With the ties announced for the play-offs, many questioned
whether we were to witness a World Cup without Cristiano Ronaldo. And with the
32 teams now decided for the event, it seems that we are heading into the World
Cup with the world’s best player getting ready to mount a challenge on the most
prestigious prize for his country.
DISCLAIMER: This article has been written by a member of the FootballWorld fraternity and represents the personal views of the writer and not of footballworld.co.in.
Posted by Subham Mitra on behalf of FootballWorld.
