FIFA World Cup: Cristiano Ronaldo makes history, fires Portugal to 3-2 win over Ghana

    For most of the game against Ghana, they were unenthused and only one goal ahead, which came from a penalty kick 20 minutes into the second half. However, two goals in three minutes by Joao Felix and Rafael Leao saw them win by what should have been a more significant margin

    Cristiano Ronaldo: “But also, on the record of being the only first player in five World Cups to score, that is something which makes me very proud" Cristiano Ronaldo: “But also, on the record of being the only first player in five World Cups to score, that is something which makes me very proud"

    Even after leading for most of the game, Ghana scored a second goal and added nine minutes of stoppage time, putting Portugal's win in jeopardy. In the last seconds of the match, Ghana had a chance to tie the game, but the Portuguese were able to hang on and breathe a collective sigh of relief.

    It's been an eventful year for Ghana. They started by flying to Cameroon for the African Cup of Nations and promptly finished at the bottom of their group, drawing with Gabon and losing to Morocco and Comoros. They then sacked their manager and replaced him before returning to competitive action in the CAF qualifiers at the end of March.

    It's accurate to say that they barely scraped by to qualify. They had won their group the previous November by one goal, with South Africa having the same points and goal difference. The only difference was that Ghana had beaten South Africa 1-0 in their final match.

    In the playoffs under new head coach Otto Addo, they followed a goalless draw in Kumasi with a 1-1 interest in Abuja to finally secure their place at the finals.

    <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A historic moment for a legendary player 👏<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIFAWorldCup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FIFAWorldCup</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/Cristiano?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Cristiano</a> <a href="https://t.co/YbpOoQHgPP">pic.twitter.com/YbpOoQHgPP</a></p>&mdash; FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) <a href="https://twitter.com/FIFAWorldCup/status/1595840416653402112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 24, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

    Most of the attention before the match had been about one player and his recent departure from his former club. Rumours were swirling that the Portugal team was no longer on speaking terms and that the dressing room atmosphere was tense and unhappy. Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes were reportedly seen glowering at each other over their newspapers.

    Portugal has qualified for the World Cup every year since 2002, although they only managed to do so twice during the 20th century. In 2006, they made it to the semi-finals but lost to France. Unfortunately, they have yet to make it past the second round in three years since then.

     

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