Cristiano Ronaldo, who became the first player in history to score at least one goal in five World Cups, was voted MVP in Portugal's victorious debut in Qatar.
Without doing more than Joao Felix, Bernardo Silva or Bruno Fernandez, the myth was enough with a little, the name and reputation to enjoy the good publicity of FIFA in a match that did not clear up the unknowns that hang over his team.
Ghana, a rudimentary team, put Portugal in trouble too easily.
Iñaki Williams, who was about to make it 3-3 in discount, bitterly regretted the outcome when the referee signaled the end.
A suffocating World Cup was announced.
The sands of Arabia suggested suffocation and dehydration.
Fears encouraged the construction of stadiums with amazing air conditioning systems.
Hundreds of millions were invested.
But November arrived in Qatar, the sun set before five o'clock, and the afternoons cooled off with the help of a sea breeze like the one that enveloped the charming Ras Abu Aboud modular stadium.
There were no excuses to reserve power.
But Ghana and Portugal took to the field as if they were out of breath.
Each on their record, they looked like two teams oppressed by melancholy during the first half.
Cristiano Ronaldo, scoring the first goal of the match against Ghana. MARKO DJURICA (REUTERS)
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates his penalty goal against Ghana.Hassan Ammar (AP)
Joao Féliz (right), fallen on the ground during the match against Ghana. Darko Bandic (AP)
Joao Felix, celebrating his goal against Ghana.
Ariel Schalit (AP)
Andre Ayew, scoring the first goal for Ghana during the match against Portugal.
MANAN VATSYAYANA (AFP)
Cristiano Ronaldo trying to beat the Ghanaian goalkeeper during the match at the 974 stadium in Doha (Qatar) FABRIZIO BENSCH (REUTERS)
Bruno Fernandes of Portugal is stopped in a counter by Ghana's Abdul Rahman Baba and Salis Abdul Samed.Matthias Hangst (Getty Images)
Portugal's players singing the anthem before the game. Richard Heathcote (Getty Images)
Portugal had just gone through two years of uncertainty and conflicts.
The sequence of players' starters and clubs of origin revealed a change of era.
Diogo Costa, Porto;
Cancel, Manchester City;
Days, Manchester City;
Danilo, PSG;
Guerreiro, Borussia Dortmund;
Otavinho, Porto;
Neves, Wolverhampton;
Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United;
Bernardo Silva, Manchester City;
Joao Felix, Athletic of Madrid;
Cristiano Ronaldo, without a team.
After saying goodbye to Manchester United this Wednesday, the top scorer in the history of national team football with 115 goals, five times Ballon d'Or, is about to become football history at 37 years old.
Living history.
Throbbing.
suffering.
Ambulatory, although less and less, as was seen in his first World Cup match.
Not even accompanied by Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes and Joao Felix, three of the most perceptive fortune tellers that exist, he managed to get advantageous positions to finish off.
His dynamism never outpaced his markers, and surprisingly, the clever Portuguese interiors failed to sustainably speed up the flow either.
Ghana, one of the most deprived teams in the tournament, survived just by settling around their goalkeeper.
Portugal has the talent to play as well as they want to.
He lacks the spirit.
For an hour there were hardly any signs of empathy between his players.
The approaches to the goal of Ghana dilated like caravans and the passes were rhetorical before an expectant adversary.
Only Bernardo Silva moved with sense through all the angles of the court to become the apex of the plays.
But when he received the ball and looked for accomplices, his teammates looked at him immobile, as players do when they are not too convinced to participate.
The public fired the teams between whistles at halftime.
The disapproval seemed to activate Ghana, who returned more daring, with Kudu in a rowdy plan.
The deployment favored Portugal, which found more spaces.
After a pass from Bernardo to the center of the area, Salisu gave Cristiano a penalty.
That, at least, is what the VAR authenticated after examining with a magnifying glass a mellifluous rubbing of boots.
The 1-0, scored by Cristiano, served for the expeditionary stands to pay tribute to their twilight hero.
Activist Bruno Fernandes
Kudu did not give up.
On the run after a ball into space from Baba, the Ghanaian insider slipped into the area through the ten lane and crossed the pass after surprising Días.
Ayew pushed for 1-1 and the band that the Ghanaian fans arranged at the back of the stadium started with a trumpet concert.
Victim of a kind of lethargy, Portugal only got into the game at times.
It was the activist Bruno Fernandes who was primarily responsible for returning her to action with a pass that Joao Felix turned into a beautiful goal.
The party ran from laziness to correcalles.
Raphael Leao, once again with a pass from Bruno Fernandes, drowned out Ghana with the 3-1 lead.
But by then the prejudices and inhibitions of the Africans had dissipated.
Packed by the evidence that something was wrong for Portugal if the ball did not go through Bruno or Bernardo, Partey's boys redoubled their hostilities and made it 3-2 through Bukari, who had just entered.
Soccer Football - FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 - Group H - Portugal v Ghana - Stadium 974, Doha, Qatar - November 24, 2022 Portugal's Rafael Leao scores their third goal REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini TPX IMAGES OF THE DAYJENNIFER LORENZINI (REUTERS)
Cristiano, who had been substituted, desperately clutched his head on the wing when Iñaki Williams stole the ball from Diogo Costa, the Portuguese goalkeeper.
The ambush did not end in a tie because Danilo ran to intercept the ball as it was moving towards the goal line.
The Portuguese celebrated the conquest of the three points with joy, as if they had narrowly escaped a week of tribulation.
They should never have lived so dangerously.
The selection is fantastic, but the team is still missing.
Uruguay awaits Monday.
Cristiano adds a new World Cup record
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his team's first goal against Ghana in a game in which number 7 smashed several hitting records.
The Portuguese forward is one of the eight players who has been in five World Cups, but he is the only one who has played as a starter and has scored in all of them.
With his goal yesterday, he became the second oldest scorer in the World Cup at 37 years behind Roger Milla (42 years old) and reached eight goals in the World Cups, one more than Lionel Messi, but still far from record of the German Miroslav Klose (16).
His first participation was in Germany 2006, in which he scored his first goal against Iran in the group stage.
In South Africa 2010 and in Brazil 2014 he also scored just one goal.
In Russia 2018, where he added three goals against Spain in the opening game, he reached four goals, his highest number in a World Cup.
The victory against Ghana was also the striker's first victory at the World Cup debut since 2006, in which the Portuguese team reached the semifinals.
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Classification
Group H | PT | P.J. | PG | PE | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 BY | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
two COR | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
3 URU | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
4 GHA | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Group H | PT | P.J. | PG | PE | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 BY | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
two COR | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
3 URU | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
4 GHA | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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