PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Cristiano Ronaldo was benched in Portugal’s round of 16 against Switzerland.
Then the substitute stepped Gonzalo Ramos forward and scored a hat-trick.
The 21-year-old has now revealed his great role models – where a Swede actually snuck in.
Cristiano Ronaldo makes perhaps the last World Cup of his career, and with his seven World Cup goals he is chasing the record of the Portuguese icon Eusébio currently sitting on with his eight goals. But when Portugal entered the round of 16 of this year’s championship, Ronaldo was not in the starting eleven – to everyone’s surprise.
Scored a hat trick
Instead, it was 21-year-olds Gonzalo Ramos – everyday at Benfica in the domestic league – who got the chance from the start. And the chance, he took it. The striker first scored the first goal of the match through a powerful left-footed shot, before later adding two more goals. All this in his first game from the start in the national team.
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With his three goals against Switzerland, Ramos also passed Cristiano Ronaldo for scoring in the finals of a World Cup. Ronaldo has not scored a single one outside the group stage.
– Not even in my wildest dreams could I have thought that I would start a knockout match. Cristiano Ronaldo is our leader. He is the captain, he is the leader and we always look forward to playing alongside him. He is my point of reference and an idol for many, Ramos himself said after his World Cup hat-trick, according to ESPN.
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The idol Zlatan
Speaking of idols. With his young age, Ramos has seen some of the greatest players at the peak of their careers, and there are three players in particular who have been idolized by him. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of them, but he has also had an extra good eye for the Polish super striker Robert Lewandowski and our very own superstar in the form of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
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After the 6-1 defeat against Switzerland in the round of 16, the shock of Morocco awaits in the quarter-finals – and there are many indications that Gonçalo Ramos will be in the starting eleven even then.
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