Ronaldo’s hat-trick sends Portugal to World Cup

LONDON, Nov 20: The irrepressible Cristiano Ronaldo scored a sensational hat-trick to send Portugal into the 2014 World Cup finals at the expense of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Sweden on Tuesday, while France advanced by conjuring one of football’s most famous comebacks against Ukraine.

A gripping conclusion to European qualifying also saw Croatia and Greece join the two heavyweights in next June’s finals.

Ronaldo came out on top in his personal duel with fellow superstar Ibrahimovic, whose brace in Stockholm was upstaged by the Real Madrid forward’s three brilliant goals in 29 second-half minutes. Portugal won 3-2 for a 4-2 aggregate victory.

France had to overturn a 2-0 deficit at home to Ukraine and did so with aplomb, Mamadou Sakho, an offside Karim Benzema and an Oleg Gusev own goal after 72 minutes sending the Stade de France wild as the fans celebrated a 3-2 aggregate triumph.

Iceland lost 2-0 to 10-man Croatia at Zabreb and were eliminated by the same score on aggregate, and Greece made it to Brazil through the playoffs after drawing 1-1 in Romania to progress 4-2 overall.

The list of African qualifiers was completed with Ghana advancing 7-3 on aggregate over Egypt despite a 2-1 loss in Cairo and Algeria progressing on away goals at the expense of Burkino Faso.

Mexico qualified on Wednesday after beating New Zealand 4-2 in the second-leg of an inter-continental playoff, bringing an end to one of their most troubled and divisive qualifying campaigns.

Striker Oribe Peralta followed his double in the opening leg with a hat-trick at Wellington to send his team to Brazil with an aggregate score of 9-3 over the two matches.

“It was very tough for us to make it,” Mexico coach Miguel Herrera said. “Obviously we have to do a lot of work off the field and also on the field.

“If we mix both together, I think that Mexico can do well in the World Cup... going to the World Cup is totally different than just playing a single game.”

The final berth for the 32-team World Cup will be secured later on Wednesday as Uruguay protect a 5-0 lead over Jordan from the first leg of their intercontinental playoff.

The draw for the group stage of the 2014 World Cup takes place in Bahia, Brazil, on Dec 6.

While France were engineering the greatest recovery of the playoffs, Ronaldo proved once again he is the man for the big occasion, continuing a prolific season in which he could yet wrestle the World Player of the Year award from great rival Lionel Messi.

He had already trumped Ibrahimovic by scoring the winner in the first leg on Friday, but the rivalry between arguably the two biggest showmen in the sport climbed to new levels at the Friends Arena.

Ronaldo opened the scoring in the 50th minute but Ibrahimovic netted twice in four minutes to level the score on aggregate and give Sweden hope.

That was quickly extinguished by two pieces of brilliance from Ronaldo, who burst through to power home a left-footed in the 77th before latching onto another through-ball and smashing into the roof of the net two minutes later.

“I know Portugal needed me in these matches and I showed I am here,” Ronaldo told Portuguese TV.

His second hat-trick in international football, to go with his 24 at club level for Manchester United and Real Madrid, sparked jubilant scenes of celebration as Portugal’s coaching staff and substitutes spilled onto the pitch.

Portugal coach Paulo Bento praised Ronaldo who became his country’s all-time leading scorer with a tally of 50 goals.

“A player who scores a hat-trick in a game of this dimension of course that has an effect that is very influential on the final result,” he said.

That was possibly the last chance for the 32-year-old Ibrahimovic to play at a World Cup, but football fans will be thrilled that both Ronaldo and France’s Franck Ribery — two of the favorites for this year’s Ballon d’Or — will be in Brazil.

STUNNING TURNAROUND

Ribery took a back seat on Tuesday as Benzema and, more surprisingly, central defender Sakho ushered 1998 world champions France to next year’s tournament.

Didier Deschamps lifted the World Cup in the Stade de France 15 years ago in his finest moment as a player and this fight-back, against a Ukraine line-up known for their doughty defense, probably tops his achievements as a coach.

“It was a great, great game. It was important for French football to be in Brazil next year - when we’ve got all the ingredients, we can do great things,” Deschamps told TF1 TV.

Deschamps brought Benzema back into the team and although the striker’s goal looked well offside, he had an earlier effort wrongly ruled out by a linesman’s flag.

An ecstatic Benzema said: “We qualified in style. The match was tough, we had to turn the situation around — we did it. We had pressure, of course, but we never doubted ourselves - I’m extremely proud.”

Defender Sakho, another player who did not start Friday’s limp showing in the first leg in Kiev, grabbed the opener with his first international goal.

Ukraine were reduced to 10 men in the 47th when full-back Yevhen Khacheridi was red-carded for fouling Ribery.

France made their one-man advantage count as Gusev turned a driven cross into his own net under pressure from Sakho which put them ahead in the tie for the first time in the 72nd minute and they saw out the rest of the game.

“We took a big slap in Ukraine,” Ribery said, “and we woke up.”

In Zagreb, Croatia ended Iceland’s hopes of becoming the smallest ever nation to dine at the World Cup table with goals from Mario Mandzukic and Darijo Srna.

Mandzukic scored in the 22nd minute to put Croatia ahead on aggregate but was given a red card nine minutes later for a reckless tackle. Iceland, whose population is only around 320,000, couldn’t capitalise and Srna’s 47th-minute goal sealed victory for the hosts.

“My respect goes to the players who left their souls and hearts on the pitch, they all made me proud,” Croatia coach Niko Kovac said.

“We had a vision and a goal. We insisted on that and we succeeded. We showed a modern football,” the 42-year-old added.

Kostas Mitroglou again shone to help Greece, European champions in 2004, reach football’s greatest showpiece after his composed early finish in a 1-1 draw in Bucharest sealed their ticket to a third World Cup after 1994 and 2010.

LADY LUCK

Algeria beat Burkina Faso on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate draw and 1-0 home win in the second-leg, skipper Madjid Bougherra scoring with a fluke goal when the ball deflected in off his head following Bakary Kone’s attempted clearance.

Ghana, who had a five-goal lead going into their second-leg, secured a third straight World Cup finals after strikes by Egypt forwards Amr Zaki and Gedo were followed up by a late reply from Kevin-Prince Boateng.Egypt have now failed to reach the World Cup since their last appearance in 1990 despite winning an unmatched four African Nations Cup titles during that time.

It was a huge disappointment for the seven-time African champions, whose American coach Bob Bradley is now expected to quit his post.

Qualifiers Spain and the United States suffered blows in friendlies, the world champions beaten 1-0 by eliminated South Africa on the Soccer City pitch where they clinched their 2010 crown and the Americans losing 1-0 away to lowly Austria.

“I think we can even say the defeat was well deserved,” Spain coach Vicente del Bosque told Cuatro TV. “We started well but little by little they started to open us up and we allowed them time to counter attack.”

In friendlies among 2014 finalists, Per Mertesacker’s header sealed Germany’s 1-0 win as fierce rivals England lost for the second time in five days at Wembley, the Netherlands played with 10 men for almost an hour but still drew 0-0 with Colombia and much-hyped Belgium went down 3-2 at home to Japan.

Ange Postecoglou enjoyed a winning start as Australia coach with a 1-0 triumph over Costa Rica and Russia saw off South Korea 2-1 in another friendly in Dubai.

In a landmark friendly, Gibraltar drew 0-0 with Slovakia in Portugal on Tuesday in their first match since being admitted to UEFA, Europe’s football governing body.

Results:

World Cup playoffs:

Europe:

Romania 1 Greece 1

(Greece win 4-2 on aggregate)

Croatia 2 Iceland 0

(Croatia win 2-0 on aggregate)

Sweden 2 Portugal 3

(Portugal win 4-2 on aggregate)

France 3 Ukraine 0

(France win 3-2 on aggregate)

Africa: