Seventy per cent of Portugal fans cannot be wrong. Those who voted to drop Cristiano Ronaldo from the starting line-up, in a highly-publicised poll by sports daily A Bola, got their wish. And if that was an indication that Portuguese football is ready to turn its back on the greatest goalscorer of his generation, his replacement scoring a hat-trick in an emphatic 6-1 win over Switzerland to reach the World Cup quarter-finals confirmed it.
Ask the previously unheralded Goncalo Ramos and - like the rest of Portugal’s next generation - he would surely praise a living and just about still playing legend. But at the Lusail, on the occasion of his first international start, he also came to bury him The Benfica striker not only scored three but set up another of the six goals in what must be described as the break-out performance of this tournament to date. What it means for the man he replaced is unclear ahead of meeting in the last eight with Morocco, but one thing appears to be certain: Portugal are a better side in Ronaldo’s absence.
