Ronaldo leads scorers
MOSCOW: Cristiano Ronaldo scored his fourth goal of the World Cup yesterday as Portugal beat Morocco 1-0, condemning the north African team to an early exit.
The five-time world player of the year netted with an early header to go with the hat-trick he scored to rescue the European champions against Spain in their tournament opener.
The Real Madrid player, who won his fifth Champions League crown last month, now has 85 international goals — a record for a European player.
“I’m happy I scored the goal but the most important thing is that we won the game. We have to think match by match in order to progress,” he said.
Disappointed Morocco coach Herve Renard said his side could take pride from their performances in Russia despite being out of the running to qualify for the knockout stages.
“We qualified for a World Cup after 20 years and we’ve showed that we can play football,” he said. “We do play football.”
Ronaldo added Portugal must strive to improve after the win against Morocco left them within sight of the knockout rounds.
“I'm very happy. The most important thing was to win the game and to get the three points,” Ronaldo said after his fourth-minute strike in Moscow decided a hard-fought contest.
“We knew if we lost we could be out. We knew Morocco would be giving their all. It was a surprise at the start because they were so strong.
“I managed to score a goal, it was great for me.”
Portugal face Iran in their final group game on Monday in Saransk.
“Our expectation is to continue our work and try to improve in the group phase,” Ronaldo said.
“We’re almost there (knockout stages) and then we’ll see. We’ll take things match after match. We will try to come first in the group.”