Portugal has qualified with brio for the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Qatar by crushing Switzerland (6-1) on Friday in the last game of the round of 16. A success obtained while its mega star Cristiano Ronaldo was on the bench of substitutes and came into play only in the last quarter when the match was already folded (5-1). The Portuguese send a strong signal with this masterclass and reinforce their status of title contenders.

While Cristiano Ronaldo was expected, it was Gonzalo Ramos who became the hero, scoring a hat-trick and an assist. Not since the Hungarian Florian Albert against Bulgaria in 1962 (20 years old) has a player so young (21 years old) managed such a feat in the World Cup.

He also scored his first three goals in his career with Portugal, joining the Brazilian Richarlisson and the Englishman Marcus Rashford, who also have 3 goals in the competition, on the second step of the ranking of the scorers of the World Cup.

Special mention also to Joao Felix, who scored twice, as well as to Pepe, Raphael Guereiro and Rafael Leao, who scored one goal each.

The goal of the Nati scored by Akanji was only anecdotal.

Portugal achieves the second biggest victory in the knockout phase of the world after Brazil-Germany (1-7) in 2014.
Portugal will compete on Saturday for a place in the semi-finals of the Qatar World Cup against Morocco. The winner of that match will face the winner of the France-England classic, also scheduled for Saturday.

The quarter-finals will begin on Friday with a mouth-watering Brazil-Croatia match (10:00 AM) before an explosive Argentina-Netherlands match (2:00 PM).