The Portugal national team were clouded by the wrong attention from all ever since Piers Morgan’s full interview with Cristiano Ronaldo was released. Fortunately, the Portugal national team captain and Manchester United finally resolved their conflict saga that saw the former leave the Red Devils once again, 13 years after his first exit from the club. Many wondered if this rigmarole would affect Seleção das Quinas and his performance in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, but the team took to the pitch and produced a solid output against their opening fixture opponent in Stadium 974, Rass Abou Aboud.
Portugal started their World Cup campaign with a 3-2 victory over fellow African groupmate Ghana in Group H, allowing them to top the group at the moment since Uruguay and South Korea played out a nil-nil draw in the other Group H clash in the Education City Stadium earlier yesterday.
Another Record Broken by Cristiano Ronaldo
After a rather quiet first half from both teams, the 2016 UEFA European Champion took the lead with their captain, courtesy of a penalty after him being brought down by Southampton’s centre-back Mohammed Salisu. The goal was the 13th the five-time Ballon d’Or winner scored in his last 14 major tournament games, increasing his all-time international goal tally into 118 goals and making him the first and only player in football history to score in five different World Cup tournaments.
The goal in such an important tournament must have been a relieving moment for the former Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus man after a series of tormenting incidents happened to him earlier this year. He was seen as emotional when the national anthem of Portugal, A Portuguesa, was played and had multiple efforts denied or missed prior to the spotkick.
Bruno Laying Out Assists
With the Black Stars of Africa equalised just eight minutes later, Portugal knew they had to dig deep to gain multiple points from this match. In the space of three minutes, Manchester United’s vice captain Bruno Fernandes capped off two devastating attacks with pitch-perfect passes for João Félix and Rafael Leão to restore and double the Portuguese lead. Despite an effort from Red Star Belgrade’s Osman Bukari in the 89th minute to pull one back for Ghana, they fell short from preventing Seleção das Quinas to seal a maiden victory in this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Portugal will face Uruguay next, and Seleção das Quinas will be looking forward to revenge on the team that knocked them out from the last 16 stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Read about how Saudi Arabia produced arguably the largest upset in the history of the World Cup against Argentina here: https://www.watchworldcup.org/saudi-arabia-stunned-argentina-with-a-2-1-comeback-win-in-the-2022-fifa-world-cup-ending-its-36-game-unbeaten-streak/
(Photo Credits: Sportstar)
