Ramos stunned by start ahead of Ronaldo

Portugal’s Goncalo Ramos was as surprised as anyone at being named in the starting line-up for Tuesday’s 6-1 hammering of Switzerland in the World Cup last 16. Scoring a hat-trick was beyond his imagination.

Making his first World Cup start, Ramos smashed three goals past the Swiss and set up another to propel Portugal into the quarterfinals for the first time since 2006.

Ramos, 21, made headlines before kick-off when the teams were announced, picked by Fernando Santos to lead the attack in place of Cristiano Ronaldo, who was relegated to the bench.

It did not take long for the youngster to become one of the biggest stories so far at the Qatar World Cup.

“Not even in my wildest dreams I thought about being in the starting XI for the knockout phase,” Ramos said.

Asked if Ronaldo spoke to him before the game, Ramos said the issue of him being benched did not come up among the players.

“Honestly, in our team, noone talked about it. Cristiano as our captain, as he always did, he helped us, he gave encouragement to us, not only to myself but our teammates.”

DEBUT

Ramos made his debut in Portugal’s 4-0 win over Nigeria in a warm-up game a few days before the World Cup and played a total of 10 minutes as a substitute in two of the three group matches.

The Benfica striker’s treble made him the first player to score a hat-trick in his first World Cup start since Miroslav Klose against Saudi Arabia in 2002.

Ramos scored the opener for Portugal with a stunning strike at the near post after 17 minutes and added a second in the 51st when he put the ball through Yann Sommer’s legs before helping tee up Raphael Guerreiro’s goal four minutes later.

He got his hat-trick on 67 minutes when he latched onto Joao Felix’s pass and lifted the ball deftly over the advancing Sommer, smiling and repeating for a third time his two-guns celebration before going off as a substitute soon after.

With victory wrapped up, the Lusail Stadium crowd implored Santos to bring on Ronaldo and reserved the loudest cheer of the night for when he trotted onto the pitch in the 74th minute.

But, the 37-year-old did little to affect proceedings, firing a free kick into the wall before the linesman raised his flag to deny Ronaldo his second goal of the tournament after he made a run from an offside position.

Substitute Rafael Leao then put the icing on the cake in added time with a curling effort into the far corner of the net as the stranded Sommer’s shoulders sank while he helplessly watched the ball sail past him into the back of the net.

Ramos said it was too soon to know if he would get a start in the quarterfinals against Morocco on Saturday.

ROLE MODELS

Asked who his role models were, he said: “Cristiano Ronaldo was one of them,” together with Robert Lewandowski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He has clearly been watching them closely.