Belatedly, Roberto Martinez was stirred out of his slumber. A manager who can look smilingly passive was facing the end: of Portugal’s World Cup, perhaps of his reign, too. Portugal’s perplexing first half had brought 69 per cent of possession and a lone shot on target.
Then they trailed and Martinez showed a decisiveness he is often accused of lacking. A quadruple change altered the momentum, the World Cup. One of the arrivals, Goncalo Ramos, was to prove the man who did something many an opponent has failed to accomplish in the last two World Cups and finish off Croatia.
But Martinez’s later, and final, change was his most instructive, perhaps his most influential.
There was some disbelief when the number went up: seven. The seven of Cristiano Ronaldo, the man who played every minute in the group stage, who survived when Bruno Fernandes and Vitinha went off in the cull of the quartet, who had, 20 years on, finally scored in a World Cup knockout game.
But with a passenger up front, Portugal were being outrun in midfield. And so off went Ronaldo, on came Ruben Neves and Ramos, who had been brought on as a No 10, was relocated to lead the line.
So there he was when Rafael Leao whipped in the most enticing of crosses, meeting it with a superb header. A 94th-minute winner was a goal that may be savoured in San Siro: Ramos has become AC Milan’s record signing and will join Leao there. But this, really, is his stage, the World Cup knockout rounds. He got a hat-trick against Switzerland in the last 16 in 2022, displacing Ronaldo from the starting 11. Now he is back on the bench, but back in the goals.
But this has seemed Croatia’s stage, too, the World Cup knockout rounds. The team who never know when they are beaten thought they weren’t beaten. Josko Gvardiol bundled in what seemed a 103rd-minute equaliser. But Igor Matanovic got the faintest of flick-ons to Mario Pasalic, rendering the latter offside before he found Gvardiol.
And so one legend reached the end of the road in World Cups: not Ronaldo but the magnificent Luka Modric. For him and Croatia alike, it was a valiant way to say goodbye. Never write off the Germans, the saying used to go; never write off these Croatians. They transformed this game, a sterile first half giving way to a stunning second. Toronto bade farewell to the World Cup with epic drama, Croatia with a sense of what might have been.
Ronaldo was neither the first nor the only old-timer on the scoresheet. Ivan Perisic found the net in the 2018 final; at 37, winning his 158th cap, he got forward from left back to add another. Josip Stanisic stood up a cross, which was flicked on to Perisic. Free at the far post, he took two touches. The third was angled past Diogo Costa.
Croatia can wonder how they did not score another. The unusually dynamic Mateo Kovacic kept driving forward; Costa denied him a goal just after the interval, the woodwork repelled a drive after 75 minutes. Petar Sucic had two goals disallowed for offside. There could have been an 89th-minute winner, Pasalic heading just wide.
Portugal’s defence creaked but their goalkeeper, Costa, was defiant. They received a jolt when they went behind. They had sterile domination before the break: Dominik Livakovic made a fine third-minute save from Fernandes, and Renato Veiga headed just wide. Otherwise, they accomplished little.
Going behind galvanised Portugal. Leao curled a shot against the bar. Ronaldo took a delectable touch and lobbed Livakovic, but the reason his 41-year-old legs were behind the Croatia defence was that he was offside. He soon had his goal anyway.
When Veiga was rugby-tackled in the box by Nikola Vlasic, the Portugal bench – the substituted quartet included – implored referee Espen Eskas to go to the monitor. He pointed to the spot. Ronaldo’s penalty was terrific; cathartic, too. Perhaps it was vindication for Martinez keeping him on initially. It was nevertheless ridiculous when Fifa named Ronaldo the man of the match.
There were times when the veteran had felt like the footballing answer to the CN Tower: immediately identifiable in the Toronto skyline but unlikely to move. But he had to trudge to the sidelines when substituted.
Yet whereas the accusation is that Ronaldo can behave as if it is all about him, there was an unselfishness at the end. Ronaldo was in tears, the shirt he was brandishing not the number he has worn for most of a career that has now yielded 146 international goals, but the 21 of the late Diogo Jota.
Portugal posed afterwards, the entire squad and staff around the late forward’s shirt. This is a team with a greater cause. And now they can carry their bid to honour Jota into a clash with Martinez’s native Spain in Dallas.
The last the World Cup will see of Ronaldo was not him being substituted in Toronto. For Modric, though, an epic journey is over.
