Ronaldo and Suarez take aim in Portugal, Uruguay showdown
SOCHI: Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Uruguay’s Luis Suarez are spearheading their teams’ World Cup campaigns. The two Spain-based strikers go head-to-head in the last 16.
The comparisons are inevitable. European champions Portugal may be playing two-time world champions Uruguay for a place in the last eight of the World Cup, but the focus will be heavily on two players.
The last-16 match in Sochi sees Barcelona striker Luis Suarez for Uruguay up against Real Madrid rival Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal.
How these two fare should go a great way to determining which of the two teams are still in the competition, where France or Argentina will be waiting for the winner in the quarter-finals.
Oddly for two nations with such a long footballing pedigree, it’s a fairly rare encounter. The have met only twice in history and both in friendly matches. In Lisbon in 1966, Portugal won 3-0, while there was a 1-1 draw in Brazil in 1972.
Uruguay are now full of confidence after winning all three of their Group A games. Portugal meanwhile began with a 3-3 draw with Spain and were made to sweat on a last-16 place in a 1-1 draw with Iran, having beaten Morocco 1-0.
Portugal coach Fernando Santos said: “It is a great team, with a coach (Oscar Tabarez) who has led it for 12 years. He knows what he wants from a game. But ahead of us is a great opponent and it will not be an easy game for both. I’m very confident in my players and I think we’ll be going to next round.”
Portugal midfielder Cedric Soares said: “They have great players like we do, some of the best in the world.
“We will study them. They’re strong but we also have our qualities and we can win.”
Portugal will again be looking for the inspiration of captain Ronaldo who has four goals in the tournament including a hat-trick against Spain but missed a penalty against Iran. At 33, it is almost certainly his last World Cupand he is keen to make his mark on the tournament after a season in which he scored 26 goals in the Spanish league and was top scorer with 15 in the Champions League.
Former Liverpool striker Suarez meanwhile arrived at the World Cup with 25 goals in Barcelona’s La Liga title triumph and has now scored twice in Russia and seven times in 10 World Cup games.
His past tournaments, of course, were also memorable for the wrong reasons.
He was sent off in the 2010 quarter-final victory against Ghana for deliberately handling the ball on the goal-line. And then followed the 2014 World Cup when he bit Italy defender Girogio Chiellini, which earned him a four-month ban from football.
Ronaldo himself was perhaps fortunate against Iran to be shown a yellow card instead of a red, following a video review, when he swung an arm to strike an Iranian opponent.
It is not just 31-year-old Suarez who makes Uruguay a threat. Fellow forward Edinson Cavani makes La Celeste a real handful up front while the record Copa America winners have yet to concede at the back.
Spain’s Marca newspaper wrote that keeper Fernando Muslera has had to intervene only seven times.
“The last time Uruguay did not let in goals in the group phase was in South Africa in 2010 and they finished fourth. Cristiano Ronaldo has a hard task in the last 16,” it said. – DPA