Cristiano Ronaldo sealed Portugal’s place in the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals with another sublime hat-trick then declared: “Simply, I did my work.”
The Portugal captain had given his side a 1-0 first-leg lead in its play-off with Sweden last week before taking centre stage yet again in the return game in Solna as he finished off the job and consigned the home team to a 3-2 defeat at the Friends Arena and a 4-2 loss on aggregate.
Ronaldo opened the scoring on the night five minutes into the second half, but the duel between the inspirational Real Madrid forward and Zlatan Ibrahimovic burst into life when the Sweden skipper scored twice in the space of four minutes to level the tie at 2-2 on aggregate.
However, Ronaldo was determined not to be upstaged by the prolific Paris Saint-Germain striker, as he scored twice in quick succession with clinical finishes to complete his hat-trick and become his country’s joint-leading scorer of all time along with Pauleta on 47 goals.
Portugal can now look forward to playing in a fourth consecutive FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil next year, while Sweden misses out for the second successive tournament.
“We’re to be congratulated. We did what we aimed to do. We will now go to clubs and think about the World Cup when it comes,” Ronaldo said.
The former Manchester United forward, who has now scored 13 goals in his last six games for club and country, admitted Portugal made hard work of seeing off Sweden.
He added: “We suffered, but that’s part of football.
“You never know who’s going to win – that’s why football is brilliant.”
France, Croatia, Mexico, Uruguay, Algeria, Ghana qualify
France also got its ticket to the World Cup, after downing a 10-man Ukrainian squad this week. Croatia qualified after it secured a clean 2-0 win over Iceland,
and Uruguay are off to Brazil after a 0-0 draw against Jordan. Mexico breezed through a 4-2 win against New Zealand to secure their ticket while Ghana managed to qualify with a 2-1 loss against Egypt and Algeria beat Burkina Faso 1-0.
Source: Omnisport
