- Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first World Cup knockout goal in Portugal’s clash with Croatia on Thursday.
- Playing in his sixth World Cup, Ronaldo had never scored in the knockout stages, with all 10 of his previous World Cup goals coming in the group phase.
- He thought he had cancelled out Ivan Perisic’s opener for Croatia just after the hour mark when he ran through and clipped the ball beyond the goalkeeper, but he was just offside.
- However, a few minutes later, Renato Veiga was adjudged to have been brought down by Nikola Vlasic at a corner following a VAR review, and Portugal were awarded a penalty.
- Ronaldo stepped up to make it 1-1 as he clipped his penalty beyond Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic.
