All set for Ronnie-Suarez Show
Top defender to tackle top scorer
THE man who has marshalled the best defence in the World Cup so far will relish the task of trying to stop his old foe, Cristiano Ronaldo, when Uruguay and Portugal meet in Sochi, Russia today.
The Madrid derby comes to the shores of the Black Sea in the last 16 with Uruguayan captain Diego Godin, of Atletico, and his club teammate Jose Maria Gimenez coming up against Real and Portugal’s five-time Ballon d’Or winner.
It will be a fascinating battle at the Fisht Stadium, with Ronaldo, at 33, enjoying his best World Cup, but Uruguay are the only side to come through the group stage in Russia without conceding a goal.
Godin is an expert at keeping clean sheets, as the leader of an Atletico defence that is the most formidable in the European club game – they kept 34 in all competitions last season – and of a Uruguay side that has not conceded a goal in 2018 in six games.
Ronaldo, though, has already scored four times at this World Cup, including a hat-trick on his last visit here when Portugal drew 3-3 with Spain.
That means he has 85 international goals, more than any other male European player in history.
In the last two years, he has scored two hat-tricks for Real against Godin’s Atletico, having also emerged victorious in two Madrid derby Champions League finals.
But the rugged and brave Godin, who needed reconstructive dental surgery after having three teeth punched out in an aerial challenge with Valencia’s goalkeeper earlier this year, has succeeded in muzzling Ronaldo on plenty other occasions at club level going back almost a decade. Upfront Uruguay boast two of the greatest goal-scorers of their generation in Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani. Suarez might lack the same sharpness of old but he has still scored twice in Russia.
These two countries have long been over-achievers on the international scene – the last decade under Tabarez has seen two-time former winners Uruguay reach one World Cup semi-final and win one Copa America, while Portugal triumphed at Euro 2016. — AFP