Can Cristiano Ronaldo Lead Portugal to a First-Ever World Cup in His Likely Final Tournament?

We are just three weeks away from the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and there are plenty of mouth-watering storylines and exciting clashes that look set to take place across the month-long tournament in Qatar. This is the first-ever tournament to take place in Asia and the first to take place in November-December as opposed to the summer months, and it will also be the final tournament to feature 32 teams with the 2026 edition increasing to 48, with Brazil, France and Argentina being ranked among the favorites in an array ofWorld Cup betting tips, followed by England, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Belgium.

This tournament will likely see three players join the elite company of Antonio Carbajal, Rafael Marquez and Lothar Matthaus and become the only players to play in five World Cups: Andres Guardado, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Sergio Ramos has an outside chance of doing the same after being included in Luis Enrique's 55-man preliminary shortlist, but he has not played for Spain since March 2021 and looks set to miss out on a fifth presence in Qatar.

After topping their group and beating the Netherlands and England before losing 1-0 to France in the 2006 semifinals via an early penalty from Zinedine Zidane, Portugal finished second in their group behind Brazil and ahead of Ivory Coast and North Korea, before losing to the eventual champions in the Round of 16 via a goal from David Villa. 2014 would see them lose 4-0 to Germany and draw 2-2 to the United States, meaning they were effectively eliminated before the final match, which would see them defeat Ghana 2-1 in Brasilia.

Portugal kicked off their 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign with a breathtaking 3-3 draw against Spain that would see Cristiano Ronaldo open the scoring from the penalty spot within four minutes, with Diego Costa equalizing 20 minutes later and Ronaldo restoring the lead on the cusp of the interval, only for Costa to complete his brace in the 55th minute and Nacho Fernández giving Spain the lead with a thunderbolt just three minutes later.