Cristiano Ronaldo cut an emotional figure at full time of Portugal’s thrilling World Cup win over Croatia.
Portugal fought back from 1-0 down to win 2-1 in what was an end-to-end encounter in Toronto and set up a last-16 game against Spain.
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Tribute to Jota
At full-time, players’ attention turned to the passing of former teammate Diogo Jota, who tragically died in a car accident with his brother Andre Silva in Spain one year ago.
Ronaldo led the tributes by wearing a Portugal home shirt with the no.21 on the back, which was worn by Jota for the national team.
After applauding Portugal supporters in the ground, an emotional Ronaldo pointed to the sky in a touching moment.
What happened in the game?
Prior to the round of 32 match, Ronaldo’s sister dropped a bombshell revelation by saying the 41-year-old would retire from international duty after the competition.
And Ronaldo’s World Cup almost looked to be coming to a premature end when ex-Tottenham star Ivan Perisic broke the deadlock in the 53rd minute.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner then thought he had equalised shortly after with a delicate chip over goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic – only to have his fantastic goal ruled out for offside.
But he managed to haul his nation level in the 68th minute from the penalty spot.
Substitute Goncalo Ramos then headed in the winner, although Croatia thought they’d taken the game to extra-time with a last-gasp equaliser through Josko Gvardiol, only for it to be disallowed by VAR.
The match was briefly stopped after a number of plastic cups were thrown onto the field by furious Croatia fans.
Veteran 158-cap Croatia international Perisic was forced to go over to the fans and tell them to calm down.
What is Ronaldo’s goal record?
In scoring, Ronaldo finally got his first World Cup knockout goal since making his tournament debut in 2006 – becoming the oldest to fire in beyond the group stages at 41 years and 147 days old.
And in scoring he also moved closer to scoring 1000 career goals, further cementing his position as football’s greatest ever scorer.
Ronaldo, who has now scored more goals for Portugal [146] than he did for Manchester United [145], couldn’t get on the score sheet from his three knockout ties when his side made it to the semi-finals in Germany 20 years ago.
He then drew a blank in the last-16 defeat to Spain four years later, with Portugal going out in the group stages in 2014.
Portugal again were dumped out in the last-16 in 2018 – losing 2-1 to Uruguay – with Ronaldo then failing to find the back of the net in his two knockout matches in Qatar.
Ronaldo, who now has three World Cup goals in 2026 – 11 in total from throughout his career – then cut a dejected figure when he was substituted in the 81st minute.
But Portugal didn’t miss him, with Ramos completing the comeback with a stunning header in the third minute of stoppage time.
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It came just moments after Croatia thought they had taken the lead through Nikolas Vlasic, only for the offside flag to go up.
The drama wasn’t done there, with Croatia believing they had got back on level terms in the 13th minute of stoppage time.
Gvardiol stabbed the ball home, but Croatia were cruelly denied for offside in the build-up – sparking uproar from the fans in attendance.
The bitter end saw Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic in tears following the full-time whistle.
But for Portugal, they will be counting their lucky stars as their dream of a first World Cup triumph continues.
Spain now stand in their way of a place in the quarter-finals with the two European nations to battle in Dallas on Monday where fans will be excited for the generational match-up that will see Ronaldo against Lamine Yamal.
