THE BALL – Portugal debuts with victory over Ghana (World Cup 2022)
Portugal beat Ghana 3-2 and, with the tie between Uruguay and South Korea, led Group H alone. Cristiano Ronaldo, João Félix and Rafael Leão scored the goals.
Portugal entered strong and dominated the match, but without being able to create clear goalscoring opportunities. Thus, the break ended with 0 to 0, but with the team from the corners having 62% of ball possession.
And it was at a time when Ghana grew in the game that Cristiano Ronaldo was caught in the area by Salisu and took responsibility for scoring the great tribute, putting Portugal at an advantage.
Another goal in the history of Cristiano Ronaldo, who becomes the first footballer in the world to score in five consecutive World Cups. And that’s why in Portugal the captain is not expendable, on the contrary and always decisive.
But we return to Portugal’s victorious debut, which has not been exciting since Germany 2006, when a goal from Pauleta gave the suffered victory by 1-0 against Angola. André Ayew equalized in the 73rd minute and was substituted shortly afterwards, as was Kudus, who made the last pass in that move. People were still celebrating on the African bench when João Félix scored, taking advantage of Bruno Fernandes’ superb assist.
Portugal regained tranquility and, three minutes after entering the field, Rafael Leão had a moment of explosion on the left, entered the area and extended the advantage by 3-1, with another assist from Bruno Fernandes.
With the comfort of two goals ahead, Fernando Santos took Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva and João Félix off the field, in the 88th minute, but Ghana scored a goal later, through Bukari, which left the corner team a little pressured.
The compensation was long, 9 minutes, and at the last second there was a huge scare: Iñaki Williams stayed behind Diogo Costa without the goalkeeper noticing and when he put the ball on the lawn the Ghanaian quickly appeared to steal the ball from him . But then the gods remained with the team of corners or the African striker slipped and was unable to score the goal that would be the tie.
More scare, less scare, Portugal won in the debut and led Group H with 3 points and with the possibility of guaranteeing qualification if they defeat Uruguay in the second round.