Quality Striker

The mark of a quality striker is his sense of timing to be at the right time at the right place. Thats exactly what Christiano Ronaldo did to be part of all the 3 goals Portugal scored against the Czecks to seal their place in the knockout stage. They could most probably meet Croatia in the quarter finals.

The first goal was a sweet pass from Ronaldo that gave Deco all the time to score an early 8th minute goal to set up a high tempo to the entire match. The Czecks gave a good fight and thats what made the match even more interesting. Ofcourse, they lacked the skills of a neat striker like Ronaldo. The ball possession of Portugal for the entire match was good. The commentator gave a very good statistic during the course of the match. Just about during the half time, Czecks had about 120 successful passes while Portugal had close to 260 successful passes !!! Well, he did point out that it isnt the about how many successful passes you have that counts, but what you do with them that matters :-)

The second goal scored by Ronaldo was taken very quick and very clean. The ball was hit with great accuracy and speed which left the goal keeper very less time to save it. It was a Ronaldo special.

The class of this man was seen in the third goal, when he broke through the defense with such alacrity that the Czecks were caught unaware. Ronaldo very unselfishly passed on the ball to his team mate, Quaresma to score an easy goal.

Like always, Ronaldo was at the right place at the right time. He has been judged the PFA player of the year for 2008. Only time will tell if we can see him produce more magic in Euro 2008.