sport news IAN HERBERT: Portugal required a moment of class but had no-one to provide it ... trends now
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The stadium clock had just ticked up to its 48th minute when he pulled off his training top in such a vigorous way that you really could not doubt the immense competitive intent.
The cameras had massed around the Portugal dug-out before kick-off, gorging on Cristiano Ronaldo as he basked in his own exclusion again. But Portugal’s wretched, pointless, anodyne first half told you that he was going to need feature very seriously on this field if his nation were going to have the remotest hope.
When he arrived, you said a silent prayer of thanks for the energy and electricity his sent through a dour quarter final in which his teammates’ fecklessness made Spain look like world-beaters, in their elimination by this hugely motivated team.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal crashed out of the World Cup with a 1-0 defeat to Morocco
Walid Regragui's side became the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup
Ronaldo was powering away towards the dead ball line, within a minute of arriving - standing up a cross which no-one in white was present to take. An immediate break in play had him convene a committee meeting with Ruben Dias and Goncalo Ramos. The instructions, hollered above the searing whistle of the Moroccan fans who howled at the very sight of him, were basic. Portugal would play a quarter at the top of the pitch, with him at the core of it.
Football has a habit of making fools of us when we generalise, as we must, and Portugal’s 6-1 in over the Swiss was presented as evidence that this King was dead.
On hindsight, that assessment now looks wrong. We have reached a stage and standard of football which, by definition, requires moments of world class. In Portugal’s case, something to break the vice-like hold on
