Cristiano Ronaldo will be remembered for his moments of magic at the likes of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus. What he won’t be remembered for however, are his World Cup campaigns. Save for some wonderful individual games, perhaps against Spain in 2018, the country he scored a hat-trick against in that thriller of a group stage game in Sochi eight years ago have ended his hopes of winning the world’s greatest sporting prize. To be quite blunt, he never got near winning it, and to be even harsher, he never stood a chance once in his six World Cup campaigns. Spain knocked Portugal out of the World Cup last night thanks to Arsenal’s Mikel Merino, who was substituted onto the pitch in the 84th minute. Seven minutes later, his smart run into the box on behalf of Ferran Torres’ pass saw him fire it past Portuguese goalkeeper Diogo Costa, sending the Spanish through to the last eight for the first time since 2010, when they last won the tournament, and they’ve set up a tie between themselves and Belgium, who got past the USA in the early hours of this morning.
The Portugal V Spain duel won’t be remembered for much, bar it being the international swansong for Ronaldo, 41 years old, who played every minute of the match, but like the rest of his team, decided to opt against giving the game to Spain, and that is ultimately what cost them. Another thing that’s also a certainty, apart from the departure of Portugal, is Portugal’s manager. Roberto Martinez has resigned after the loss, but not before praising Ronaldo one last time.
He is a prime example of football and the human being that is behind that athlete
was the rhetoric he ran on. One thing is now certain for Portugal, and that is that an era ended last night in Dallas, for better or worse. The USA were also dumped out of the tournament last night after being beaten 4-1 by Belgium, just hours after President Trump’s interference saw Folarin Balogun’s red card, which he picked up during the USA’s Round of 32 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina suspended for a year. Belgium head coach Rudi Garcia was incensed before the game, saying that he didn’t think July the 5th was like April 1st. And his team played like they were incensed at Balogun’s re-instation, putting Mauricio Pochettino’s side to the sword, winning 4-1. This was both a bad performance from the US and a good performance from Belgium, knowing that if they get past Spain, they’re into the last four for the first time since 2018, when they finished third overall.
The quarter-final line-up will be finalised tonight, with the action underway from 5pm. Lionel Messi and Argentina face an Egypt side that got to this stage on penalties against Australia. Argentina fans will be hopeful that the Messi will continue his fine form at this tournament; his seven goals are the joint-most at the tournament along with Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, and if Argentina get through, they’ll set up a last eight tie with Switzerland or Colombia, the last match held in Canada. BC Place is the venue for that game, which gets underway at 9pm. It’s also worth noting that the tournament pauses for a day tomorrow, before the business end of what has been a fun, action-packed and at times, very recently even, controversial World Cup begins.
Luke Watson will be keeping us up to date on World Cup 2026
