Portugal 5 Uzbekistan 0
About time you joined the party Portugal. The pressure on Portugal going into this game was astronomical following the disappointing draw with DR Congo and they did not let us down, they got off to the perfect start just six minutes in as Joao Cancelo raced down the right-wing and swung a low-cross into the near-post where who else but Cristiano Ronaldo was waiting to swing Portugal into the lead and open his account at this World Cup. It didn’t take long for Portugal to double their lead when Pedro Neto was brought down on the edge of the box giving Portugal a free-kick in a very dangerous position, it looked for all the world like Ronaldo was going to take it but it was a decoy as Nuno Mendes stepped up and slammed the ball past Nematov to put Portugal 2-0 up in the 17th minute. Portugal were playing with a crazy tempo and could have scored 5 or 6 in the first half but they did manage to grab a third in the 39th minute as Bruno Fernandes led a counter-attack slipping a perfect through ball to Ronaldo who finished brilliantly to kill the game in the first half, a well worked corner in the 60th minute came back off the Uzbekistan keeper to give Portugal their 4th goal and Rafael Leao grabbed their 5th in the 87th minute with a ridiculous finish into the top left corner as Portugal cruised to their first win of this World Cup.
This performance has to be the standard for Portugal now. You could immediately tell this was a different Portugal than the one that limped to a draw against DR Congo and when Ronaldo opened the scoring in the 6th minute a massive weight was lifted from everyone associated with Portugal in that stadium, for some reason they decided to use all their set-piece routines in this game which they may regret later on but the one in the second half where it looked like Ronaldo was going to take then walked away before sprinting into the box after Fernandes’ lofted pass was genius and it was such a shame it didn’t result in a goal. Roberto Martinez made two changes from the Congo game bringing in Ruben Dias and Joao Felix which worked a treat with Dias bringing much needed defensive solidarity to that Portugal backline albeit against a shocking Uzbekistan team, it was just a far better Portugal performance from top to bottom and a performance that shows they are capable of going deep into this tournament. The question is will they top the group? A game against Colombia will decide it.
The gamble hasn’t paid off for Uzbekistan. The big question going into this World Cup was whether or not bringing in Fabio Cannavaro was the right decision after Timur Kapadze brought the team through qualification, I think that question has been answered in these two games where Uzbekistan have scored one goal and conceded eight. It was always going to be tough against Colombia and Portugal in the first two games but they haven’t even been competitive which will probably lose Cannavaro his job after the tournament, it all comes down to the last game for Uzbekistan depending on what happens later on in the Colombia vs DR Congo match. If DR Congo fails to win then Uzbekistan still have a chance to finish 3rd with three points if they win their final game, will they beat the Congo in the last game? I can’t see it.
You can’t keep a player of his quality down for long. After getting ridiculed all week from everyone around the footballing world calling him washed and finished following the DR Congo game Ronaldo had a statement to make today and he did it in style, the first goal was a finish we’ve seen from Ronaldo over and over again with a brilliant first-time finish into the near-post after a great ball from Cancelo to get Portugal going in the game. The second goal was similar to the one Bryan Mbeumo scored against City in January with Bruno Fernandes leading the counter-attack and of course picking the perfect pass to Ronaldo who rolled the ball past Nematov to really announce himself again on the World’s stage, there’s been so much discourse on Ronaldo this week that to me has been overly disrespectful towards someone who has given so much to this game. It’s an absolute pleasure to watch Messi and Ronaldo on top form once again for probably the last time, just enjoy it because you’ll miss it when they retire. Is the storyline building up to Argentina vs Portugal in the knockouts? What a game that would be.
What has this result done for the group? The win for Portugal puts them top of the group for now but Colombia would go back to 1st if they beat DR Congo later on tonight, Uzbekistan stay bottom of the group and would be eliminated from the World Cup if DR Congo win tonight. If Colombia win later on then all they would need is a draw against Portugal to top the group with Portugal needing a win to go back to 1st in the group, DR Congo vs Uzbekistan would ultimately decide who finished 3rd with both teams needing a win which would make for an exciting final game. It will be much clearer following the Colombia vs DR Congo game later tonight, will you be staying up to watch it?