Cristiano Ronaldo makes history as Portugal edge Croatia in World Cup thriller
Team face Spain in last-16 clash on Monday in Dallas, while Luka Modric has probably played his last tournament match
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the first World Cup knockout-stage goal of his career, Goncalo Ramos netted a stoppage-time header and Portugal got a last-second break on an offside call to beat Croatia 2-1 on Thursday and set up a last-16 clash with Spain.
Croatia looked to have equalised at the end, leaving Ronaldo crestfallen on the bench, but the last-gasp effort was ruled offside after a video assistant referee review, prompting the team’s supporters in the south end of Toronto Stadium to shower the pitch with debris.
“It’s difficult because it’s a game if you don’t win, you go home,” Ramos said. “But for me, especially, I love those types of moments, I love those types of games, I want to play every game like that, I want to be in the big moment.”
It was Josko Gvardiol who thought he had equalised for Croatia in the 103rd minute but a review showed the ball had touched Igor Matanovic on the way through, which made Gvardiol offside.
“We didn’t deserve this sort of finish,” Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic said. “It’s never easy when you concede a goal in the last minutes of the match but we should have resolved this differently.”
Ronaldo, 41, became the oldest player to score in the knockout stage of a World Cup when he fired home from the spot to draw Portugal level in the 68th minute of a pulsating game before substitute Ramos rose above the Croatia defenders in the fourth minute of stoppage time.