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On Thursday night time, Cristiano Ronaldo put his title within the historical past books. His purpose in opposition to Ghana — a penalty scored simply after the hour mark — made him the primary participant ever to attain at 5 separate World Cups.
The feat is a testomony to his enduring expertise, and to the size of his reign on the high of the boys’s sport. No surprise he nonetheless vies with Lionel Messi to be world soccer’s official GOAT.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is a phenomenon”, mentioned Fernando Santos, Portugal’s head coach, after the sport. “In 50 years’ time, we are going to proceed to discuss him.”
But the 37-year-old ahead finds himself searching for work. Earlier this week, his contract with Manchester United was torn up with speedy impact — the fallout from an explosive interview he gave to Piers Morgan.
After Thursday’s match, he was requested about his future. He swerved. The one factor on his thoughts now’s this Portugal workforce and the World Cup. “The remaining, it doesn’t matter,” he mentioned, earlier than leaving the post-match press convention.
Earlier within the day, Saudi Arabia’s sport minister had helped set tongues wagging. In an interview with the BBC, he was requested if Ronaldo is likely to be lured by the Saudi league. In any case, the Gulf kingdom has been making an aggressive push into international sport.
“Something is feasible”, mentioned Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal. “I might like to see Cristiano Ronaldo play within the Saudi league.”
Messi already has a deal to assist promote tourism in Saudi Arabia. Maybe a package deal journey to look at Ronaldo will probably be within the subsequent vacation brochure.
Friday’s one to look at: Qatar’s final likelihood at redemption
Qatar’s soccer ambitions have been constructed at nice expense on the Aspire Academy, a cutting-edge facility in Doha with coaches, sports activities scientists and different specialists from round world.
The undertaking to construct a aggressive workforce — greater than a decade within the making — confronted its greatest take a look at on the opening day of the match. It was an abject failure, with the Qatar nationwide workforce dropping 2-0 to Ecuador.
Even with out injured talisman Sadio Mané, Senegal needs to be a good more durable opponent on Friday afternoon. However for Qatar that is their final likelihood. A loss right here would assure an early exit, and push the workforce’s title into the working for the match’s worst facet. Qatar’s long-term soccer ambitions would possibly then be up for dialogue.
Fixture listing:
Wales vs Iran, 10am UK time/1pm Doha time
Qatar vs Senegal, 1pm UK time/4pm Doha time
Netherlands vs Ecuador, 4pm UK time/7pm Doha time
England vs USA, 7pm UK time/10pm Doha time
Thursday’s spotlight: Spherical one shuffles pack of potential champions
We’ve now seen each workforce play their first sport in Qatar, with a number of shocks alongside the best way. The listing of favourites seems barely totally different consequently.
Brazil stay essentially the most backed facet to elevate the World Cup (maybe because of Richarlison’s wonder-volley in opposition to Serbia). However behind them now sit high-scoring Spain and England, each at 7/1. Narrowly a bit additional again are holders France, who notched up their very own spectacular 4-1 win over Australia.
In the meantime Argentina’s star has fallen, at the least a bit. They’re now 19/2 to turn into world champions for the primary time since 1986. However they’ll should get going fairly rapidly: a loss in opposition to Mexico on the weekend would show deadly to these ambitions.
As for Germany, they’re now a distant 29/1 to win the match after their late defeat by the hands of Japan. Having been bounced out within the first spherical in 2018, a second early exit in a row now looms.
Full outcomes:
Switzerland 1 Cameroon 0
Uruguay 0 South Korea 0
Portugal 3 Ghana 2
Brazil 2 Serbia 0
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