The 2026 FIFA World Cup has gotten off to a flying start on the pitch. With so much happening every day, ESPN India attempts to pick out the one magical moment that defined the day's action.
For Day 21, we pick Gonçalo Ramos's injury-time winner for Portugal against Croatia.
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"There he is, rising at the far post, thumping a header into goal as he delivers yet again. Clutch monster. Matchwinner. Cristiano Ronaldo."
How many times have you heard this? How many times have you seen this man do this over the past twenty years? The header, the seizing of the moment, the dragging the team over the line -- it's exactly what you expect him to do for any team he plays for, in any match he plays in.
Except in World Cup football, it's never really happened for him. On the biggest stage of them all, at six different editions, he had scored just once in a knockout match: and that was a (cool, collected) penalty in this one. This one, where Portugal had been on the ropes against Croatia and Luka Modric in their round of 32 clash, where they had been trailing to an Ivan Perisic goal, where a VAR-advised TV-monitor check had given Ronaldo the penalty to convert. This one, where he would finally prove to the world that he can deliver in the clutch moments at a FIFA World Cup. Rising high at the far post...
Except when Rafael Leão whipped in a sensational cross into said far post, Ronaldo had already been off the pitch for thirteen minutes. The substitution had shocked everyone - fans in the stands, suits in the boxes, those watching at home, Ronaldo himself. After spending the whole World Cup laughing at those who asked why Ronaldo was playing every minute of every game and telling them, 'why would I take off Ronaldo when I need a goal?', Roberto Martinez had taken him off to give his Portugal side a semblance of shape and order in the final stages of a match that was slipping away from them, equaliser or not.
Ronaldo had one touch in the penalty box all day (the penalty kick) and apart from taking the pen, had been an at-times-walking, at-others-not-even-that bystander for 81 minutes. In the thirteen minutes that led up to Leao's cross, though, Portugal had wrested control back of the match, their midfield was in order, their forwards doing what modern forwards are supposed to off the ball.
'All that's good,' I can hear you mutter. 'But who was going to get on the end of that cross?'
Well, the man who does for Portugal what everyone thinks Cristiano Ronaldo does -- make them a better unit, deliver in the clutch moments -- Goncalo Ramos. He was going to get on the end of that cross, because in World Cup football, that's just what he does. He may not have had even a fraction of the success that Ronaldo's enjoyed over the years domestically, he may have only scored ~11.6% of the goals Ronaldo has... but he's proved, whenever given a chance, that he's better for Portugal right now.
In the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Ramos had started one knockout tie ahead of Ronaldo and shown the world a tantalising glimpse of just how dangerous this Portugal side can be when the team plays like no one is first among equals. He'd delivered a hattrick then and looked dangerous in the next round, before the pressure of trailing saw then coach Fernando Santos cave and sent Ronaldo on too early and Portugal reverted to type.
Ramos had made it count inside thirteen minutes of being the lone man up top (and not playing alongside Ronaldo). As Leao whipped it in, he rose at the far post and guided a clever header on, flicking it into the bottom corner. There was no salmon leap, no thumping in off the header... just a slight hop timed to perfection and a careful flick designed to beat marker and keeper.
A winner, in the 94th minute. At the end of a dramatic match that astonishingly went on for another 15 minutes, the score read Portugal 2, Croatia 1. One of the key stats that dropped after the match read: Goncalo Ramos with a goal or assist every 37 minutes, in World Cup football. Cristiano Ronaldo? One every 163.
"There he is, rising gently at the far post, guiding a header into goal as he delivers yet again. Clutch monster. Matchwinner. Goncalo Ramos."