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Portugal hammered Uzbekistan 5-0 in Houston to cruise into the knockout rounds, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice to become the first player in history to score in six different World Cups — and his tenth World Cup goal moves him past Eusébio as Portugal's all-time leading tournament scorer. Nuno Mendes added a penalty, an Uzbek defender turned one in, and Rafael Leão wrapped it up late. Uzbekistan barely showed up, which made the record-breaking feel a bit ceremonial, but Ronaldo will take it. Portugal, who had stumbled to a 1-1 draw with DR Congo in their opener, are now very much through; Uzbekistan need a serious result in their final group game just to stay in the conversation.
Pre-match Talking Points
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1Portugal drew 1-1 with DR Congo in their opener, which means they cannot afford another slip here. Win and they're well on their way through; draw and they're scrapping with DR Congo and Uzbekistan for a spot behind Colombia. Lose and the whole group becomes a nightmare. For a squad of this quality, 'must not lose to Uzbekistan' is not where you want to be.
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2These two have never played each other. Ever. So if anyone at the pub tries to bring up head-to-head record, you can politely inform them there isn't one. Uzbekistan are at their first World Cup — the first Central Asian nation to get there — so Portugal are about to write the opening chapter of what will hopefully be a long rivalry. For now, it's just a blank page.
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3Keep an eye on Bruno Fernandes, not Ronaldo. Fernandes has 29 international goals from 88 caps and is the one who actually makes Portugal tick in midfield. Ronaldo hasn't scored in his last 10 major tournament appearances, which is a sentence that still feels slightly surreal to type. If Portugal are going to win comfortably, it'll be because Fernandes pulled the strings, not because the big man finally ended his drought — though you'd still back him to try.
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4Fabio Cannavaro — yes, the 2006 World Cup winner — is coaching Uzbekistan, which is either a charming subplot or a sign of how football careers pan out. His team lost 3-1 to Colombia in the opener, but they did score, through Fayzullaev, the first World Cup goal in Uzbekistan's history. They have genuine quality in Khusanov at Manchester City and Shomurodov up front. This isn't a side that'll just sit back and hope for the best.
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5Uzbekistan are the first Central Asian nation to qualify for the World Cup, full stop. That is genuinely worth something, even if you couldn't find Uzbekistan on a map in under 30 seconds. They've already scored their first ever World Cup goal. If they can nick something against Portugal today — an 83% win probability for the Portuguese, according to Opta — it would rank among the great tournament upsets. Long shot, but that's what makes it worth watching.
Team Talking Points
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1Portugal's World Cup ended in the round of 16, beaten 1-0 by Spain on July 6 — Mikel Merino, on as a substitute, scored deep into stoppage time to send the eventual finalists through instead. As cruel a way to go out as there is.
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2That match very likely doubled as Cristiano Ronaldo's last-ever World Cup appearance, at 41. He'd equalised from the penalty spot in the previous round against Croatia, so it's not a bad way to bow out — a goal near the very end of a 20-year international career, even if the final result didn't go his way.
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3The high point was that round of 32 win over Croatia, 2-1, settled by a Gonçalo Ramos header in the 94th minute after Ronaldo's leveller — and a controversial VAR call that chalked off what would have been a late Croatia equaliser. Proper knockout football drama.
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4Portugal went unbeaten through the group stage (a draw with DR Congo, a 5-0 win over Uzbekistan, a goalless draw with Colombia) to finish runners-up in their group, before the round of 16 brought the run to a stop against the tournament's form team.
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5For one of the traditional big footballing nations, a round of 16 exit is the kind of result that gets filed under 'quietly disappointing' rather than catastrophic — but with Ronaldo's international career very possibly now over, this tournament will be remembered for who was playing more than how far they got.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Cristiano Ronaldo, at 41, may well have played his last-ever World Cup game against Spain — scored a penalty the round before to bow out on a goal, which is more than most players get.
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Avoid saying
Don't say 'Portugal always bottle it' — they went unbeaten through the group and lost to the eventual finalists by a stoppage-time sucker punch. That's not bottling it, that's just a rough final ten minutes.
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1Uzbekistan's first-ever World Cup ended in the group stage after a 3-1 defeat to DR Congo on June 27, having also lost to Colombia and Portugal. Losing all three games sounds bleak on paper, but for a country at its first World Cup, simply being there was the achievement — this is a genuine good-news story, not a cautionary one.
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2The standout moment came in that very last game: Eldor Shomurodov put Uzbekistan 1-0 up against DR Congo inside the first 10 minutes, and for most of an hour a first-ever World Cup win looked entirely possible before DR Congo scored three times in the final half hour to turn it around. A heartbreaking way to finish, but also proof this team could genuinely compete.
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3There's no need to dwell on a low point here — losing every game at your first World Cup, against Portugal, Colombia and a DR Congo side that made history of its own, is simply what a difficult group looks like. Worth noting gently rather than dwelling on.
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4Abbosbek Fayzullaev scored Uzbekistan's first-ever World Cup goal, heading in against Colombia in their opening match — a genuinely historic moment for the country, regardless of the final score. Say his name right and you'll impress: it's ah-BOS-bek fie-zoo-LAH-yev.
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5Uzbekistan leave with zero points but a full set of memories — a nation of qualifiers going toe-to-toe with Portugal and Colombia and briefly leading DR Congo. Genuinely one of the warmest stories of the tournament, and very likely not a one-off.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Uzbekistan lost all three group games at their first-ever World Cup, led DR Congo 1-0 with under an hour to go in their last one, and still leave as one of the tournament's best stories.
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Avoid saying
"They only lost, so what's the big deal" — the big deal is they qualified at all, for the first time ever, and led a knockout-round-bound side deep into their final match. Say that instead, or you'll sound like you missed the point entirely.