Published On 7/3/2026
The Portuguese national team achieved a dramatic victory over its Croatian counterpart with two goals to one in the round of 32 of the 2026 World Cup.
This was the 16th match in which Portugal trailed in the result at any stage of the World Cup matches.
Read also
list of 2 itemsend of list
This is only the second time that the Portuguese national team has succeeded in winning after falling behind in the result, after it did so against North Korea in 1966 (they won by 2 and lost by 12).
Gonzalo Ramos’ winning goal is the second-latest goal scored by Portugal in their World Cup history, after Silvestre Varela’s 94:34 equalizer against the United States in 2014.
Gonzalo Ramos scored four goals in 187 minutes he played in the World Cup. The only other player in World Cup history to score four or more goals in less than 200 minutes is Poland’s Ernst Wielimowski.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s numbers from the Croatia match
Cristiano Ronaldo scored a goal in the knockout rounds of the World Cup for the first time in his career, and the goal came from his 31st shot in these rounds.
This goal is the third goal for Cristiano Ronaldo in the current World Cup edition. The only other player in the history of the World Cup to score a goal when he is 40 years old or older is Roger Milla for the Cameroon national team in 1994 during the group stage match against Russia.
With his participation as a starter, Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to participate in the knockout stages of a World Cup at the age of 41 or older.
Ivan Perisic’s goal was his first in the 2026 World Cup and his seventh overall in the tournament, making him the top scorer for the Croatian national team in the history of the World Cup, surpassing Davor Šuker (6 goals). At the age of 37 years and 150 days, Perisic became the first Croatian player to score a goal in the World Cup at the age of 35 or older.
This is also the first match in the history of the World Cup to witness the participation of three different players, each of whom played more than 20 matches in the tournament. This was the 26th match for Cristiano Ronaldo, the 23rd for Luka Modric, and the 21st for Ivan Perisic.
The average age of the starting lineup for the Croatian national team was 30 years and 99 days, which is the oldest starting lineup in a match outside the group stage in the World Cup since the same Croatia lineup in the third-place match in 1998 (30 years and 126 days).
