For day 16, we chose an off-the-field event: when Portugal's team sheet was released... and Cristiano Ronaldo's name wasn't on it.
Before the game, rumors were circulating. A report from a Portuguese media outlet bolstered it. But they were undoubtedly incorrect. Surely it was just the overactive imagination of someone who got carried away by Fernando Santos' pre-match statements? The tweet arrived at 11.14 IST.
Diogo Costa is in Portugal's starting lineup against Switzerland. Dalot, Diogo Pepe. Dias, Ruben G. Raphael Carvalho, William Otavio. Fernandes, Bruno Silva, Bernardo Felix, Joao... Ramos, Goncalo
We already had the moment of the day an hour and 16 minutes before the start of Tuesday's second match: the announcement that Cristiano Ronaldo had been benched.
Portugal had not won a World Cup knockout match since 2006. (when they basically kicked the Netherlands a little less than they were kicked). This final round-of-16 tie of 2022 had everyone's attention. It wasn't even close to being high-pressure. But here we were.
For the first time since the group stages of Euro 2004, Portugal's starting lineup did not include Cristiano Ronaldo. Everything that happened that night was a direct result of this.
To put what we saw on that Lusail stadium pitch into context, consider how bad Portugal has been for the past decade and a half. It's been especially jarring because this time period coincided with the prime of one of the game's greatest players. Almost as startling now is the fact that Portugal were a completely different team without him on the field.
First, there's the obvious. To put it mildly, Goncalo Ramos was spectacular. Ronaldo's replacement, a 21-year-old making his first start for Portugal, scored the kind of goals Ronaldo used to score all the time. At the near post, a swivel and an unexpected blast into the roof. The ball was tucked in with a deft little flick after a darting run in front of the defender. Running in behind the last man to go one-on-one and chipping just over the advancing keeper. Santos had taken a huge risk by starting Ramos in a game of this magnitude; in return, he had received the youngest (men's) hat-trick scorer in a World Cup knockout game since some Brazilian kid named Edson Arantes de nascimento
Portugal played the kind of high-tempo, quick-passing, fluid-position football purists fantasize about with Ramos leading the line. Ramos' pace, intelligence, and tenacity stretched the game, creating space for the trio of Joao Felix, Bernardo Silva, and Bruno Fernandes behind him. We hadn't seen the true technical brilliance of these three combining yet, but when it did, the football was exactly what everyone expected:
Pepe, captain in place of his great mate, was a monstrous presence, thundering home one from a corner. Raphael Guerreiro scored after a stunningly simple and quick move set up by Ramos' unselfish first-time touch around the corner. It was the type of move, the kind of fluid football, that Portugal had teased
This freedom had resulted in the goals scored on the night. Both in terms of thought and movement. When one of the game's most prolific goalscorers is removed, everyone else does not feel obligated to constantly serve him. Several outlets were discovered throughout the pitch. Everyone became fearless. Shots were fired without hesitation, and passes were pinged without hesitation. The attacking midfield triumvirate darted hither and thither, working the ball forward in dizzying passing triangles. Fullbacks charged forward. The frontal press was coordinated, and the fall-back as a unit was disciplined. The disparity between their group stage performances and this is... enormous. And they did it against the tournament's best team.
. The stadium erupted when Ronaldo was finally introduced. The game had already been decided, but a decibel count far exceeded anything else at that point — a reminder of his pure box-office appeal, of how large a shadow he still casts off-the-pitch.
In an almost cruel twist, the twenty-one minutes he spent on the pitch served as a stark contrast to the rest of the night. A freekick was deflected into the wall. Inside the box, a long ball was mishandled. He blew a one-on-one opportunity after losing a footrace with a defender. A nice finish was ruled out because his timing on his run was off by several yards. The football had suddenly started jarring again.
When Ronaldo was on the field, Portugal scored, but it had little to do with him, Rafael Leao curling one in from close range, that endearing smile lighting up the Doha sky as he let fly.
Santos would say after the game, "Our captain is perfectly fine. We've known each other for a long time. We talked before the game, and he was fine with my decision. He serves as an example." Santos understands that in order to make a deep run in the tournament, he'll need every resource he can muster, and few are better than a potential super-sub with 819 goals to his name. So he'd say that starting with Ramos was a strategic decision. He was simply a different player. But now that he's seen what his team's true potential is, the question is whether he'll stick with it.
If he does, the moment that defined this day could very well define the entire tournament.
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