A rematch of a last-16 game from the 2018 World Cup resulted in Portugal punching its ticket to that round in 2022.
Bruno Fernandes’s double gave Portugal a 2–0 win over Uruguay on Monday, exacting a measure of revenge for Uruguay’s 2–1 win in Russia over four years ago. With the victory, Portugal is mathematically clear of both Uruguay and South Korea with a game to spare, joining France and Brazil in having clinched places in the knockout stage. Uruguay, meanwhile, has work to do in its finale against Ghana—a rematch of a heated 2010 quarterfinal, in which Luis Suárez’s intentional handball became an international incident, and wound up helping La Celeste reach the semifinals in South Africa.
Suárez was left on the bench to start on Monday, with Edinson Cavani and Darwin Núñez preferred by manager Diego Alonso, at least from the start.
Uruguay fired the first warning shot in the third minute, when Mathías Olivera had a go from 20 yards after some slick interplay worked the ball down into the Portuguese third.
Portugal answered with a half-chance of its own a minute later, with Ronaldo looping a shouldered pass into the Uruguay box, where William Carvalho attempted an audacious high volley, sending it wide of the mark.
It was Uruguay’s turn to come close in the 11th minute, with José María Giménez heading a set piece just over goalkeeper Diogo Costa’s bar.
The fans Lusail Iconic Stadium braced themselves for something special in the 18th minute, when Portugal earned a free kick some 25 yards out on the left-hand side. Ronaldo stood over the ball and did his classic breath-and-run-up routine, but all he could do was blast his kick into the Uruguay wall, sending it out for a corner. Fernandes’s subsequent take sailed over everyone and curled out for a Uruguay throw.
The best chance of the half came in the 32nd minute, when Uruguay’s Rodrigo Bentancur squeezed through multiple Portugal defenders and into the Portugal box. Costa raced off his line and made the save, though, denying the Tottenham midfielder the goal.
Portugal suffered a setback in the 42nd minute, when PSG fullback Nuno Mendes was forced out with an injury. He was replaced by veteran Raphaël Guerreiro.
Portugal broke forward with the first chance of the second half on a 52nd-minute counterattack. Bernardo Silva led the charge, and the ball wound up on the left for João Félix, who could only put his shot into the side-netting to bring an anticlimactic end to a promising sequence.
A couple of minutes later, that miss didn’t matter as much. Fernandes served in a ball from the left, and Ronaldo rose up to meet it. It didn’t look like he got a touch on it with his forehead, but the ball wound up in the back of the net anyway, and Ronaldo initially claimed the goal—which would have been his second of this tournament and the ninth in the World Cup in his career. The official scoring ruled it belonged to Ronaldo’s former Manchester United teammate, however, keeping Ronaldo at one in Qatar.
Suárez entered for Uruguay in the 73rd minute, with La Celeste seeking a breakthrough moment to pull even. It was another substitute that nearly scored, though, with Maxi Gómez stinging the post on a blistering shot.
Suárez came inches away in the 78th minute off a free kick through traffic. The ball fell to him at the left post, where he settled and shot quickly but couldn’t hook it on target, instead firing into the side netting.
Portugal was gifted a penalty in the 90th minute, when Giménez went to ground to try to tackle the ball off Fernandes. He missed, and as we slid, the ball hit off his trailing hand, a moment caught by VAR on review. With Ronaldo having been subbed out of the game by that point, Fernandes took the spot kick, and he did his trademark hop-kick routine to double Portugal’s lead.
Portugal has one more match to go in the group stage, facing South Korea, which remains in the running for a knockout berth as well.
