Gonçalo Ramos fires for Portugal! Ex-Benfica downs Croatia (Video) | OneFootball

Portugal qualified this Friday for the World Cup round of 16 by beating Croatia 2-1 in the 12th match of the ‘Round of 32’, played in Toronto, Canada. Gonçalo Ramos came off the bench and scored the goal that sent the brave Portuguese through.

After a first half that left a lot to be desired from both sides, the Croatians came out firing and found the net in the 53rd minute, with Ivan Perisic taking advantage of a poorly cleared ball to complicate Portugal’s dream. Shortly after, Igor Matanovic doubled the lead, but it was ruled out for offside.

Portugal were forced to respond and, from the bench, Roberto Martínez made four changes: Francisco Conceição, Bernardo Silva, Gonçalo Ramos - now at Milan -  and Nélson Semedo. Rafael Leão struck the crossbar and VAR spotted a penalty for a shirt pull on Renato Veiga. In the 68th minute, Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up and converted to level things for Portugal .

In the 80th minute, the coach took CR7 off to balance the midfield, and Rúben Neves came on. The referee added 10 minutes of stoppage time and Gonçalo Ramos, surrounded by two Croatian defenders, headed home the winner at 90+4. After stoppage time had already expired, Croatia equalised, but the goal was disallowed for offside.

Next up is mighty Spain in the 2026 World Cup round of 16. The Iberian clash is scheduled for next Monday, the 6th, from 8 pm (mainland Portugal time) . The match will be played at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas.

Watch the “gunslinger’s” goal:

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.