Cristiano Ronaldo announced a few months ago at a press conference that Qatar would be his “last World Cup” and just a week ago he reaffirmed his idea although he bet: “If we are world champions, I will retire.”
These words, plus the darts thrown at Manchester United -the English club terminated his contract yesterday- due to the lack of minutes, generated a heavy atmosphere in the week prior to the debut but everything cleared up in the farewell friendly when Portugal, without him for gastroenteritis, thrashed Nigeria 4-0 in Lisbon.
The former Real Madrid, top scorer for national teams with a total of 117 goals in 191 games, will compete in his fifth World Cup -the sixth in a row for Portugal and the eighth in its history- and his best collective performance was in Germany 2006, when he finished fourth . Then, he never made it past the round of 16.
The Portuguese team reached the World Cup after leaving Turkey and North Macedonia on the road in the playoffs by finishing second in their area, behind Serbia.
For its part, Ghana will add its fourth participation since its World Cup start in Germany 2006 and after an absence of eight years. The best work occurred in South Africa 2010, where he was eliminated by Uruguay on penalties, with the well-remembered execution of “Crazy” Sebastián Abreu.
The main figure in Ghana is Thomas Partey, the current man from Arsenal (England), for whom they paid 50 million euros in mid-2020 when he wore the colors of Atlético de Madrid.
Parley scored the goal for the World Cup qualification, which was not easy: he had to leave Nigeria on the road, with whom he drew 0-0 at home and 1-1 away, which gave him the ticket for the tiebreaker of the goal in said condition.
The only previous meeting between Portugal and Ghana was in the group stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Portugal won 2-1, with a winning goal from Cristiano Ronaldo.
When will Portugal vs Ghana play?
The match will begin at 1:00 p.m. (Argentine time), at stadium 974.
Where to watch Portugal vs Ghana
The duel between Europeans and Africans will be broadcast by the TyC Sports cable signal.
possible formations
Portugal: Diogo Costa; Joao Cancelo, Pepe, Ruben Dias, Nuno Mendes; William Carvalho, Ruben Neves, Bruno Fernandes; Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, Rafael Leão. DT: Fernando Santos.
Ghana: Joseph Wollacott; Denis Odoi, Daniel Amartey, Alexander Djiku, Gideon Mensah; Thomas Partey, Iddrisu Bada, Mohammed Kudus, Jordan Pierre Ayew; Issahaku Fatawu and Felix Afena-Gyan. DT: Otto Addo.
Source: Ambito
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