Portugal in control at half against Switzerland
Published
Goals from Goncalo Ramos and Pepe have given Portugal a deserved 2-0 lead over Switzerland at the half of the final Round of 16 tie at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The winner of the match will meet Morocco, surprise victors over Spain earlier on Tuesday, in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
Benfica's Ramos was a surprise starter on Tuesday, making his first ever international start with Fernando Santos leaving Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench. Santos made it clear on Monday that he didn't appreciate the manner in which Ronaldo reacted to being substituted during Portugal's final group stage match against Korea Republic and opted to hand a start to Ramos, who only made his senior debut in a friendly with Nigeria just days ahead of the World Cup.
Ramos made Santos look like a genius early on. Minutes after Ricardo Rodriguez did well to deal with a dangerous cross from Bernardo Silva, Joao Felix found Ramos in the area. From an almost improbably tight angle, Ramos ripped a ball into the top of the net past Yann Sommer.
The goal gave Ramos one more than Ronaldo has ever scored in a World Cup knockout match.
Switzerland came close to an equalizer in the 29th from a free kick. Xherdan Shaqiri's whipped-in effort just cleared the far post and would have beaten a diving Diogo Costa, but instead of 1-1, it was 2-0 for Portugal just minutes later.
From a Bruno Fernandes corner, the ageless Pepe jumped higher than everybody else to head home in the 33rd to become the oldest man to ever score a knockout-round goal at a World Cup at 39.
Ramos almost had another in the 42nd when he was again sprung in alone, but Sommer made a fine save to deny the brace.
Should Portugal hang on, they would reach the quarters for the first time since 2006.