Cristiano Ronaldo was replaced with a hat-trick – Sport – Kommersant

The last quarter-finalist of the World Cup, which continues in Qatar, was the Swiss team. Leaving her main star Cristiano Ronaldo in reserve, she, largely thanks to the hat-trick of striker Goncalo Ramos, achieved a very large victory over the Swiss team – 6: 1, and will now meet with the Moroccan national team, which defeated the Spaniards earlier in the penalty shootout.

Before the start of this match, it became known that, compared with the last round of the group stage, there were fundamental changes in the lineups of both teams. The Portuguese began the meeting without Cristiano Ronaldo, whose absence their head coach, 68-year-old Fernando Santos, explained by tactical considerations. And the main goalkeeper, who had healed a cold, returned to the gates of the Swiss – the most experienced Jan Sommer, whom the rivals tried to actively, but unsuccessfully press in the first minutes. At first, however, the game was of interest only to fans who were trying to figure out what the tactical idea of ​​the Portuguese coach really was. For more than a quarter of an hour, the opponents rolled the ball in the center of the field, trying to find weaknesses in other people’s defensive formations.

But this, as it soon became clear, was the calm before the storm that hit the Swiss. In the 17th minute, the very young Benfica striker Goncalo Ramos, who replaced Cristiano Ronaldo, after the transfer of Joao Felix and with the full connivance of defender Fabian Sher imitating his guardianship, sent the ball into the near nine with such force that Sommer managed to flinch, only finding it in the gate net. Having scored, the Portuguese, as if by inertia, carried out a couple more quite dangerous attacks. Midfielder Otavio tried to complete one, the same Goncalo Ramos tried to complete the other, but the score remained the same. Switzerland responded with a dangerous free kick by Xherdan Shaqiri. And after a couple of minutes, Cher almost sent the ball to his goal, knocking it out for a corner, which the Portuguese played as in training. The ideal serve to Bruno Fernandes with his veteran bald head, brilliant in every sense of the word, was very effectively closed by Pepe, who achieved complete air supremacy in someone else’s penalty area for a couple of seconds. By the way, the 39-year-old Porto defender became the oldest goalscorer in the play-offs of the World Championships, and only the legendary 42-year-old Cameroonian Roger Milla scored in their final stages at an older age, who scored in 1994 in the USA in a match against Russian team.

A similar development of events by the 33rd minute hinted that the rational Portuguese could switch to holding the account. But it didn’t happen before. Having missed the attack of Remo Freuler, who was unable to throw the ball with his head over the hands of goalkeeper Diogo Costa, even before the break, not without the help of a sluggish Swiss defense, they brought Goncalo Ramos one on one with Sommer, who in this case showed himself well done.

However, at the beginning of the second half, neither Sommer nor anyone else could prevent the Portuguese from bringing the matter to a rout. First, Goncalo Ramos scored a double, pushing the ball between the legs of the unfortunate goalkeeper of the rivals with his toe. And then another failure of the Swiss defense led to the fact that defender Rafael Guerreiro went on a date with Sommer, who scored the fourth goal. And although Manuel Akaji reduced the score a little after the corner kick, that was not all, since Goncalo Ramos still ran to a hat-trick.

But Cristiano Ronaldo still entered the field, and even shot from a free kick, and then also scored a goal that was not counted due to offside. And already in stoppage time, Rafael Leau put an end to the match with a beautiful dribble shot, although by and large this no longer mattered. As a result – 6:1. The Spanish loss to the Moroccans in Tuesday’s first match on penalties was the only surprise in the first round of the play-offs. And the full schedule of the quarter-finals looks like this.

9th December. 18:00. Croatia – Brazil. 22.00. Netherlands – Argentina.

December 10th. 18:00. Morocco – Portugal. 22.00. England – France.

Evgeny Fedyakov