Cristiano Ronaldo: Portugal star’s late free-kick and hat-trick is just another example of his strength of mind

Nacho thought he had won it. Spain thought he had won it. And what a way for him to do it, overcoming giving away a penalty in the fourth minute to nicking it with a thunderous, swerving half-volley which pinged off both posts before nestling into the back of the net. Well, that’s what everyone had thought.

Not many goals – or moments – would have been worthy enough to dethrone that Nacho strike, but a hat-trick by the five-time (and reigning) World Player of the Year, with a stunning free-kick in the last minute of normal time just might do it.

The Portuguese stood over the ball, 25 yards from goal, with the right sleeve of his shorts rolled up to display the rippling muscle of his thigh, where the power, and skill, would come from to beat David De Gea.

Fifty-one hat-tricks. That is how many the World Cup has seen in its entire 88-year history, but it is also the number Cristiano Ronaldo has scored in his 16-year history as a professional. Brazil’s Ronaldo was nicknamed El Fenomeno – and his namesake has proven just as phenomenal with his goalscoring.

It is said Ronaldo only plays for team Ronaldo, it is said he is a 33-year-old whose legs were going, is selfish and is difficult to work with and who drops his head when things aren’t going his way. That is what is said, but it is far from what is seen, especially for Portugal.

Ronaldo waited his whole life to lift a trophy with Portugal and after suffering a cruel knee injury in the final of Euro 2016, it would have been easy for him to sit in the dressing room with tears streaming down his cheeks and sulking – understandably so – over what could have been. Instead he dominated the technical area like it was the 18-yard box he is most lethal in, and cheerlead his team to victory.

It would have been so easy for his head to drop again after Nacho’s strike, and after his first two efforts – a penalty and a De Gea howler – were cancelled out by Diego Costa, Spain’s victory without a manager seemed like the main storyline in Sochi.

Immediately Ronaldo was enraged. He was focused, direct and throwing everything at the country who only hours before reportedly settled on him paying their government €18.8m and a suspended two-year prison sentence over alleged missed tax fraud.

He steamed through on De Gea before Gerard Pique intercepted and laid on to teammates who, as is so often with Portugal, were not on his level. But there was no petulant strop, no flailing arms or hands on hips or long, piercing stares. Just head down and more hard work.

And it paid off in a surprisingly uncharacteristic way.

Ronaldo has a reputation for wasting good free-kick positions and when he stepped up in the 88^th minute the usual mutterings were going around – it was too close, he doesn’t score free-kicks anymore, he is as likely to hit the wall as row zed.

Ronaldo stood there, in his trademark stance and blocked it out. The rest is history.