Newsletters
Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice and set up a third as Portugal dismantled Uzbekistan 5-0 in Group K at NRG Stadium on Tuesday, recovering emphatically from a dispiriting opening draw to plant themselves firmly in contention for the knockout rounds.
Before a crowd of 68,777, Portugal were ruthless, commanding, and at times clinical in a performance that bore little resemblance to the tentative display that had produced only a 1-1 draw against DR Congo in their tournament opener.
Portugal's expected goals of 2.41 against Uzbekistan's 0.25 captured the scale of their dominance. This was a match that was over as a contest before half-time.
The noise surrounding Ronaldo heading into Tuesday's fixture had been substantial. The 41-year-old had failed to score in each of his last 10 major tournament appearances across the World Cup and UEFA European Championship, amassing 33 shots and an xG of 4.5 without reward in that stretch. Against DR Congo, those concerns had only deepened.
He needed just six minutes to begin answering them. Joao Cancelo burst down the right flank with pace and purpose, cutting the ball back for Ronaldo, who slid it home at the near post with the composed efficiency that has defined his career.
It was Ronaldo's 10th World Cup goal, making him Portugal's all-time leading scorer in the tournament, surpassing Eusebio. More notably still, it made him the first player in history to score at six different World Cup tournaments.
Nuno Mendes doubled the advantage on 17 minutes with a set-piece that will linger in the memory.
With Portugal awarded a free-kick and every expectation that Ronaldo would step up, Mendes instead took it left-footed and bent a low, precise effort into the bottom-right corner, having caught Uzbekistan's wall completely wrong-footed.
Uzbekistan threatened a moment of their own when Aziz G'aniev smashed a long-range strike into the top-left corner from 25 yards, but the goal was ruled out after a VAR review confirmed a foul on Cancelo in the build-up.
The decision was a harsh but correct one, and it left Uzbekistan with nothing to show for perhaps their most dangerous passage of the game.
Ronaldo completed his brace on 39 minutes when Bruno Fernandes, his former Manchester United teammate, threaded a precise throughball into the right side of the area and the veteran forward slid it into the bottom-left corner.
Portugal went into the interval leading 3-0 with an xG of 1.38 to Uzbekistan's 0.15.
The second half carried the feel of a training exercise for Roberto Martinez's side. On the hour mark, a flowing move from a corner led to the ball ricocheting off Joao Felix, then defender Abdukodir Khusanov, before goalkeeper Abduvohid Nematov got a final touch that sent it into his own net, crediting Nematov with the own goal to make it 4-0.
Substitute Rafael Leao put the gloss on proceedings in the 87th minute, latching onto a deflected pass intended for Ronaldo and hammering a finish into the top-left corner.
Ronaldo himself came close to a hat-trick in stoppage time, only to be denied by an offside flag.
Vitinha set a Portugal record in the process, his 21 line-breaking passes the most recorded by a Portuguese player in a World Cup match since data collection began in 2010.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, finished the game having registered seven shots, a tally he has exceeded in World Cup football only against Brazil in 2010 and Ghana in 2014.
Among the more unusual statistics of the evening: the age difference between Ronaldo, 41, and Uzbekistan's Behruzjon Karimov, 18, was 22 years and 183 days, the largest between two starting players recorded in World Cup history.
Uzbekistan, who were making only their second appearance at the tournament having lost their debut to Colombia 3-1, had entered the fixture with a record of just one win in their last 23 matches against UEFA nations across all competitions. They were unable to improve on that record on Tuesday.
Portugal advance to their final group stage fixture against Colombia with momentum restored and three points secured. A win there would almost certainly confirm their place in the last 16. Uzbekistan, meanwhile, face DR Congo in their final pool game with elimination looming.
Uzbekistan coach Fabio Cannavaro, who as a player won all three of his personal matches against Portugal and scored one of his two Italy goals against them in a 2008 friendly, will need to find solutions quickly if his side are to keep their World Cup alive.
For Portugal and Ronaldo, the story in Houston was a straightforward one: a performance of authority and purpose, with the team's talismanic forward at its centre, doing what he has always done when the stakes demand it.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
