As if the round of 16 couldn’t get any further stacked.<\/p>\n
With Thursday’s results, we are set for yet another supercharged contest between two of Europe’s elite sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After Spain took care of business to start the day, Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal got the job done against Croatia. It wasn’t without drama, though, and it ended with the 41-year-old superstar on the bench.<\/p>\n
Here’s the best of Match Day 22 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n
BEST OF THE DAY<\/strong><\/p>\n Striker<\/p>\n Portugal<\/p>\n Ronaldo had played eight knockout-stage games at the World Cup entering Thursday night’s round of 32 test against Croatia. He did not score in any of those games.<\/p>\n Ninth time was the charm.<\/p>\n Portugal was given a penalty in the 66th minute when center back Renato Veiga was pulled down by Croatia midfielder Nikola Vlasic on a corner kick. Two minutes later, Ronaldo calmly put a penalty kick right down the middle to get his goal.<\/p>\n An honorable mention to Ronaldo’s longtime Real Madrid teammate Luka Modri\u0107, who likely played his last game for Croatia and maybe his last game ever.<\/p>\n The midfield maestro has dazzled for Croatia since making his international debut in 2006, leading his squad to a runner-up World Cup finish in 2018 (winning the Balon d’Or that year) and a semifinal appearance in 2022. He has made more than 200 appearances for the national team.<\/p>\n Striker<\/p>\n Portugal<\/p>\n The big question about Portugal before the World Cup: Should Gon\u00e7alo Ramos start as Portugal’s striker ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo? Ramos started in the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup and scored a hat trick against Switzerland, and the 25-year-old is more than capable of a starting spot.<\/p>\n He showed why on Thursday night in Toronto.<\/p>\n Ramos came on as a substitute in the 62nd minute. Ronaldo scored a penalty kick in the 68th minute but was taken off in the 81st, giving Ramos the reins as the lead striker for Portugal.<\/p>\n In the 94th minute, Rafael Le\u00e3o played a cross toward Ramos and three Croatian defenders. Despite being potentially held as he jumped toward the ball, Ramos beat everyone to the ball and headed home.<\/p>\n Defender<\/p>\n Spain<\/p>\n Spain’s dominance over Austria on Thursday was capped by a well-worked third goal from the duo that combined to score the winner of the Euro 2024 final against England.<\/p>\n Cucurella fed Mikel Oyarzabal for the first goal, and then the same exchange netted Spain its third goal. The Spanish left back played a low cross that curled around the Austrian defense right onto Oyarzabal’s right foot. He slotted home calmly to put the cherry on top of another Spain win. It’s also the type of linkup play that’s put Oyarzabal (4 goals so far) firmly in the mix for the Golden Boot chase.<\/p>\n Goalkeeper \u00b7\u00a0Portugal<\/p>\n Costa was one of the best players on the field for Portugal on Thursday night in Toronto. He made several notable saves, including two on Croatia midfielder Mateo Kova\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n Costa\u2019s most impressive save of the night came in the 75th minute, when Kova\u010di\u0107 unleashed a shot that looked like it was going into the bottom corner. Costa dove to his left and got a hand on the shot, which went onto the post and stayed out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY As if the round of 16 couldn’t get any further stacked. With Thursday’s results, we are set for yet another supercharged contest between two of Europe’s elite sides.\u00a0 After Spain took care of business to start the day, Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal got the job done against Croatia. It wasn’t without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}