With a semblance of a lead recovery at the 54e minute, Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to believe that he had scored the winning goal of the match between Portugal and Uruguay, which on Monday qualified the Seleção das Quinas in the round of 16 of the World Cup in Qatar.
As soon as he saw the ball cross the goal line, Ronaldo headed for the corner post, leaping and spinning, to the sound of the now famous cry “Siuuuu” which echoed among the approximately 89,000 spectators at Lusail Stadium in Doha. A very ostentatious way of indicating to everyone that this goal of a subtlety invisible to the naked eye was indeed his.
The goal was instead granted a few minutes later by FIFA to the one who had centered the ball towards the Uruguayan cage, the playmaker of Portugal and (just) ex-teammate in CR7 club at Manchester United, Bruno Fernandes.
The two Portuguese have been famously cold since Ronaldo gave a controversial interview to England host Piers Morgan about everything that’s wrong – around the ball – in Manchester. And which earned the prolific 37-year-old striker an almost immediate breach of contract with the club, which revealed him to the planet.
It is probably not by appropriating Bruno’s goal that Cristiano will silence the rumors of a disagreement between them. Without the intervention of Ronaldo, Fernandes would not have foiled the Uruguayan goalkeeper with this returning ball. But by claiming this goal scored “a little with a draft and a little with the hair of God” – to deflect the famous line of another best player of all time – Ronaldo adds a stone to the building of his egocentrism.
People will tell me, with reason, that you don’t score 118 goals in the national team without “playing for yourself”. Especially when you’ve lost your top speed. The fact remains that for me, who has followed Cristiano Ronaldo’s career and admired his game for almost 20 years, this goal-which-is-not-his-but-which-he-claims-nevertheless sums up her personality. For better and for worse.
“Who scored the first goal between Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes? I think it was a great game and the rest doesn’t matter,” Portugal coach Fernando Santos told a press conference. This is how you put out a nascent fire in front of the media. John Herdman should take notes.
The star of this match won 2-0 by Portugal was undoubtedly Bruno Fernandes. He converted a penalty he got himself early in stoppage time, after a small bridge on Sebastián Coates branched off the defender’s hand in the penalty area. The number 8 almost turned his double into a hat-trick when his shot hit the post at 98e minute.
PHOTO KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Bruno Fernandes
The match gave rise to successive waves of attacks from both sides. Bruno Fernandes was at the heart of the action, relaying a number of balls. Portugal dominated possession with some inspired play but also plenty of rushing shots from their forwards from outside the penalty area. Uruguay especially anticipated the counter-attack.
Federico Valverde, who is having an outstanding start to the season at Real Madrid, had little hold on the game. Rodrigo Bentancur, who is finally finding his feet at Tottenham, created quite an opportunity in the 32e minute, obliterating Portuguese midfielders and defenders with an elegant slalom from midfield. Goalkeeper Diogo Costa was lucky to cushion Bentancur’s shot with his hindquarters…
Uruguayan coach Diego Alonso was slow to bring forwards Luis Suárez and Maxi Gómez (in the 72e minute) for Edinson Cavani and Darwin Núñez, rather unobtrusive. The Uruguayan attack was immediately revitalized. Gómez hit the post and Suárez moved the outside of the side netting. The tide had turned, but it was too little, too late.
It was a sort of revenge for Portugal, eliminated in the round of 16 of the Russian World Cup four years ago by Uruguay, 2-1.
La Celeste, who drew against South Korea in the curtain raiser, is not yet eliminated. They will need to get a result against surprising Ghana in their final group game to qualify. And hope to repeat the feat of a victory in the World Cup, which has dodged it since 1950, after a first coronation at the very first World Cup in 1930.
“We are underdogs,” said Cristiano Ronaldo in his famous interview with Piers Morgan, a week before the start of the World Cup. The Portuguese are less so than their prolific striker suggests, even though they have never won a World Cup.
Admittedly, the Portuguese qualified by the skin of the buttocks, thanks to two goals in the final of the playoffs from Bruno Fernandes against North Macedonia (which had eliminated Italy). But this Portuguese Seleçao, well beyond Cristiano Ronaldo, is extremely balanced and talented, with its Bernardo Silva, Rúben Neves, Rúben Dias, João Félix, Rafael Leão and João Cancelo, perhaps the best right-back in world soccer. This team has what it takes to go far in the tournament, despite defender Nuno Mendes suffering an injury on Monday, whose tears seemed to betray he won’t be playing again anytime soon.
An anecdote to finish: usually, the directors of the matches – and not only in the World Cup – try hard not to film the spectators who disturb the game while running on the ground. On Monday, we saw the rainbow flag of a demonstrator fleeing security agents, who wore a t-shirt in support of Ukraine and Iranian women. The LGBTQ+ symbol was then picked up by the referee. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone in the FIFA broadcast team did it on purpose…