New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Ronaldo scores in Portugal win
MOSCOW — Off the top of his head, Cristiano Ronaldo scored yet another goal, set a European record and eliminated Morocco from the World Cup.
The Portugal forward headed in a fourth-minute cross from the right to give Portugal a 1-0 victory on Wednesday. It was his 85th goal for his country, the most for any European player in almost 150 years of international soccer.
“It was beautiful for me,” Ronaldo said after being voted the man of the match for the second straight game.
Ronaldo celebrated his goal by pointing at his chest during a trademark run and soaring leap toward the corner flag at the Luzhniki Stadium.
The goal moved the 33year-old Ronaldo ahead of Ferenc Puskas, another
Real Madrid great who scored his last goal for Hungary in 1956. He is alone in second place worldwide behind Ali Daei’s 109 goals for Iran.
“He has a great coach,” Portugal coach Fernando Santos said through a translator, laughing when asked about Ronaldo. “He’s like a port wine. He knows how to refine his capacity and age at his best.”
Ronaldo’s four goals top the individual scoring chart at this year’s World Cup. Buoyed by his hat trick in a 3-3 draw against Spain on Friday, including a spectacular free kick late in the game, Ronaldo scored against Morocco with his first meaningful touch of the match.
He was too strong for marker Manuel Da Costa and found space in the goalmouth to meet Joao Moutinho’s cross following a short corner.
Ronaldo had two more free kick chances, each from less than 20 yards (meters). But both were blocked by a solid wall of defenders as the Portuguese ground out a result from an often poor display, much like it did two years ago on its run to the European Championship title.
There were 42 fouls in the match, and only two Portuguese shots on target. Most of the best play came from Morocco, but the North Africans now have no chance of advancing from the group stage after a second straight 1-0 loss.
Morocco had enough scoring chances, nearly all from set pieces, and three came in a five-minute spell early in the second half. Younes Belhanda was twice denied by goalkeeper Rui Patricio’s diving saves, and defender Mehdi Benatia scooped a shot over the bar.
In stoppage time, Benatia lifted another shot too high with an even clearer chance.
“Those who know how to be in the penalty box and know how to make plays are the ones who make all the difference,” Morocco coach Herve Renard said.
Benatia, a rugged defender who plays for Juventus, led the effort to stop Ronaldo. His hard tackles from behind, however, earned him a yellow card.
There was a separate clash in the penalty area between Morocco winger Noureddine Amrabat and Portugal left back Raphael Guerreiro. Guerreiro raised his shirt to show the referee a set of scratches across the right side of his stomach, and Renard was lectured by American referee Mark Geiger for demanding a video review of the incident.
URUGUAY 1, SAUDI ARABIA 0: With a single goal, Luis Suarez settled the fate of four teams in the group stage of the World Cup.
The controversial striker, who was making his 100th appearance in his national team’s light blue, scored Wednesday to give Uruguay a 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia and a spot in the round of 16.
The result, though, had a domino effect in Group A. It also put host Russia into the next round while eliminating both Saudi Arabia and Egypt at the same time.
Suarez, who was kicked out of the last World Cup for biting an opponent during a match, knocked in a corner kick from Carlos Sanchez in the 23rd minute for his 52nd goal for his country in that century of matches.
“We are more than proud because we’ve reached the knockout stage at three successive World Cups. It’s a beautiful moment and we want to enjoy it,” Suarez said. “We still haven’t hit our stride so we need to tweak some things.”
Uruguay and Russia both have six points from their opening two matches, putting them into the round of 16 with a match to go. They will face each other on Monday in Samara with first place in Group A on the line.
Besides scoring, Suarez led his team with a hardworking performance. He fell back to defend and raced forward alongside Edinson Cavani on the counterattack.
“I don’t want to hand out empty praise but Suarez is a crucial player for us. And he has that enormous capacity to score goals,” Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez said. “He lives under enormous pressure, but he lives with it. He takes that pressure on.”
The 71-year-old Tabarez is the oldest coach at the tournament and also led Uruguay to the World Cup semifinals in 2010.
“We do want to score more but there are other positives: no yellow cards, no injuries,” Tabarez said. “We’ll see who we get now (in the next round). You don’t see 10-0 games at the World Cup anymore. All the teams out there are good we respect all of them. That is a cardinal rule for us.”
SPAIN 1, IRAN 0: Diego Costa scored on a deflection to lead Spain to a 1-0 win over Iran on Wednesday at the World Cup.
Costa broke the deadlock in the 54th minute after being set up by Andres Iniesta. The powerful striker turned in the area and took a shot but the ball deflected off Ramin Rezeian before bouncing back onto Costa’s knee and into the net.
Costa, who also scored two goals in the opening match, has three goals at this year’s World Cup, trailing Cristiano Ronaldo by one. He also has nine goals in his last nine starts for Spain.
Both Spain and Portugal have four points in Group B following their 3-3 draw and subsequent 1-0 victories. Iran has three points in the group but Morocco has been eliminated.
Facing a very compact Iranian team that came out to defend, Spain pressed very high and had to be patient. The 2010 World
Cup champions were almost caught against the run of the play when Karim Ansarifard unleashed a powerful strike that ended up in the side-netting following a long thrown in.