Portugal coach, Fernando Santos, praised the captain’s mentality, Cristiano Ronaldo. Cristiano Ronaldo showed his best performance in Portugal vs Spain match at the Fisht Olympic Stadium on Friday (15/06/2018).
Group B match of the 2018 World Cup was ended in a 3-3 draw. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a sensational hat-trick in the game against Spain.
Ronaldo’s three goals occurred in the 4th minute, 44th, and 88th. The three Spain’s goals were scored by Diego Costa (24′, 55′) and Nacho Fernandez (58′).
Cristiano Ronaldo who was asked as the best player in the game then expressed his joy.
“I am happy, this is my best performance at the World Cup,” Ronaldo said.
“I am also happy because the team played well, the draw is fair I think,” said the Real Madrid star.
Ronaldo’s success brought his team out of that pressure because it had a winning mentality. It was then praised by coach Fernando Santos.
“Cristiano not only has a strong physical, even an impressive mentality,” Santos said.
“In fact, when Spain took a 3-2 lead, Ronaldo showed that he was responsible for lifting his team,” said the former coach of the Greek national team.
“He has been playing at the top level and in this game has shown his ability to overcome difficult moments,” said Santos.
a 3-3 draw makes Portugal and Spain stuck in second place in Group B of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Top Group B positions are filled by Iran who won 1-0 over Morocco.
Here are 4 interesting facts from matches Portugal vs Spain:
4 – Cristiano Ronaldo aligns himself with two German legends, Uwe Seeler and Miroslav Klose, as well as Brazilian Pele’s legend in terms of goals at the World Cup. They always scored from four World Cup runs.
8 – Since his appearance to defend his country at 2004 European Cup, Ronaldo has always scored from eight international tournaments. The Portuguese star scored in four World Cups and four European Cups.
33 – Cristiano Ronaldo is the oldest player to score a hat-trick in the World Cup. Captain of the Portugal national team was 33 years 130 days when breakthrough the goalpost of David de Gea.
51 – Cristiano Ronaldo scored 51 hat-tricks throughout his professional career. Uniquely, the goal against the Spanish national team is a hat-trick to-51 throughout the history of World Cup.
