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| Gonçalo Ramos. |
By benching Ronaldo for the Round of 16 match, Portugal manager Fernando Santos stunned the World Cup.
However, just 17 minutes into the playoff match, Ramos of Benfica, Ronaldo's replacement in the center forward position, provided justification for the choice.
Joao Felix sent the ball to Ramos in the area, who swiftly turned and struck a beautiful, tight-angled shot that went past Yann Sommer and into the roof of the net.
After Pepe had given Portugal a 2-0 lead, Ramos scored his second goal of the game in the second half by getting on the end of a pass from the right and shooting from close range.
Later, Ramos took the lead by passing a through ball to Raphael Guerreiro, whose decisive goal made it 4-0. A few seconds later, the Swiss got a consolation goal from Manuel Akanji.
On the 67th minute, Ramos finished off his hat trick with a beautiful dink over Yann Sommer, the goalkeeper for Switzerland.
The 37-year-old, who also serves as his captain for Portugal, has been regularly defended by manager Santos, who won Euro 2016 with Ronaldo by his side.
The way Ronaldo responded to being substituted in the 65th minute of a group loss to South Korea seems to have strained their bond.
Amateur lip-readers claimed he expressed dissatisfaction with the coach's choice, and Santos later addressed this in a press conference.
“Have I seen the images when Ronaldo was subbed? Yes. Did I not like what I saw? No, I didn’t like it one bit,” Santos said on Monday.
“These matters are resolved behind closed doors,” he said. “It’s resolved. Full stop on this matter and now it’s full focus on tomorrow’s match.”
Despite these remarks, Ronaldo's exclusion was still unexpected given that he is one goal away from matching Eusebio's record of nine goals for Portugal in World Cups.
Ramos of Benfica, who only recently made his debut for Portugal, entered the game.
Prior to this match, the 21-year-old had only played 34 minutes for his country's senior team, twice as a substitute during the World Cup group stages and once during a friendly.
However, up until this point, he had never taken the field as a starter. He scored immediately after being introduced to the lineup. Despite that, he becomes the first player to score a hat trick in the Qatar World Cup 2022.
Portugal have now qualified into the quarterfinals to face Morocco who eliminated Spain from the world cup. The match will be fire.