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MOTD- Portugal 1-0 Sweden

By on November 15, 2013
Portugal celebrate after Cristiano Ronaldo's late winner

Portugal celebrate after Cristiano Ronaldo’s late winner

Ronaldo, Ronaldo, Ronaldo.  It’s all about Ronaldo. The Portuguese winger bagged his seventh goal six days, consequentially putting Portugal on the upper hand in their vital World Cup playoff tie with Sweden.  From the start it seemed like Zlatan Ibrahimovic might outdo the winger, as his counterpart Ronaldo previously had a knack of getting it wrong on big occasions, but no, it was Ronaldo who made the vital difference in a very close knit match to give Portugal a win over Sweden in Lisbon.  Yet despite the evenly matched teams playing out to a low scoring match, the game hardly could have produced more chances, despite the fact nobody managed to bury them, except Ronaldo.  Twenty-two shots were taken before the favorite to win the Ballon d’Or scored a late winner, even though only three of them were on target.

However, the opening minutes to the match were, action packed, with Portugal dominating possession but Sweden looking very dangerous on the break.  Portugal really should have taken the lead after only four minutes when Raul Meireles slipped a wonderful pass through to Joao Moutinho on the edge of the box, only for the extremely well-paid AS Monaco midfielder to round Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson and cut a shot into the side netting from six yards out.  Yet Sweden came close moments later as Johan Elmander sent Mikael Lustig’s cross from the right inches wide from seven yards. Sebastian Larrson was the next to come close for the visitors when Ibrahimovic’s dummy allowed the ball to roll across the edge of the box to the Sunderland midfielder, who smacked a shot towards goal which was pushed wide by Rui Patricio.

Ronaldo had been inconsequential early on, but as the match switched into the second half the Real Madrid player came close to scoring the opener in the forty-ninth minute.  Chaos in the Sweden box concluded with Ronaldo flashing a volley just over the crossbar before Nani’s cross was nearly converted by Per Nilsson, who sent it just wide of his own goal.  The home side continued to dominate possession, yet they filed to convert it into chances, sending cross after cross into the box with no avail.  Yet finally, one of Portugal’s crosses was converted by, of course, Ronaldo.  Miguel Veloso whipped a low cross from the left into the six yard box, and Ronaldo came across before sending it into the bottom corner of the far post via a brilliant diving header.

Still, Ronaldo wasn’t done, with the No7 sending another beautiful cross from the left onto the crossbar at the back post with a thumping header after rising high above Martin Olsson.  Although the match was not nearly over at 1-0 until the final whistle, Portugal held on to the slim lead to give themselves the upper hand in Sweden in the second leg on Tuesday.
Man of the Match: Cristiano Ronaldo

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.