By Gerry Cox at ESTADIO DO DRAGAO, PORTO — Cristiano Ronaldo proved once again that he is the man for the big occasion, and showed Gareth Southgate exactly what England will be up against on Sunday if they beat the Netherlands tonight.
Ronaldo scored a hat-trick of the highest quality against Switzerland to take his international goal tally to 88 in 157 games, and take his country through to the final of the inaugural Nations League.
At 34, he does not have the blistering pace or stamina to dominate games anymore, but he still has the knack of rising to the occasion and scoring vital goals.
His first in the Estadio Dragao was a trademark free-kick from 20 yards, dipping and swerving one way and then the other to leave Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer stranded.
VAR controversy
His second and third came in quick succession in the closing stages of a match that the Swiss threatened to nick, having equalised from the penalty spot early in the second half. Referee Felix Brych had seen nothing wrong when Steven Zuber tumbled under Nelson Semedo’s challenge as he went for a header.
Indeed Portugal broke quickly and thought they had a penalty of their own when Bernardo Silva was upended. But Brych was persuaded to look again at Semedo’s clash with Zuber and spotted the Barcelona defender had clipped the Stuttgart player’s knee.
Ricardo Rodriguez put the penalty away, and suddenly Portugal looked like they might falter.
Switzerland, inspired by Xherdan Shaqiri, opened up Portugal with surprising ease, and with better finishing they could have been 3-0 ahead by the time Ronaldo sent his free-kick snaking past Sommer in the 25th minute.
Shaqiri created chance after chance, but Haris Seferovic missed time and again, Remo Freuler shot wide, and Granit Xhaka shot high and wide, before being booked.
Man for the big occasion
With extra-time looming, up stepped Ronaldo. His second goal came after Silva cut back a superb through ball from Ruben Neves, the Juventus forward striking a low shot, first time, past Sommer.
A minute later, Ronaldo cut in from wide on the left, did a little stepover to make space for a shot, and curled a beauty into the far corner.
It was a masterclass, yet he had also shown his fallibility by putting an early chance well wide and then failing to control the ball with the goal at his mercy later in the game.
Joao Felix, Portugal’s latest wonderkid, made his full international debut alongside Ronaldo in attack but the teenage striker from Benfica barely had a chance to show why he has a £106m valuation before he was replaced in the 70th minute. Experienced defender Pepe also went off with a shoulder injury that could keep him out of Sunday’s final. If England come up against the hosts, Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling will fancy their chances against Portugal’s porous back line.
But they will have to stop Ronaldo at the other end.
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from Football – inews.co.uk http://bit.ly/2QRIJch
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