DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The fortunes of Portugal’s national team have been inextricably linked with Cristiano Ronaldo for nearly two decades
Ronaldo was in tears as he made his way to the locker room following Portugal’s 1-0 loss to Morocco in the World Cup quarterfinals on Saturday. It remains to be seen if that was the last time the world saw Ronaldo on soccer’s international stage.

If it is, it marks a huge moment for the Portugal team, given Ronaldo is its captain, record scorer and greatest ever player. There’s a chance the team might also have a different coach for the first time since 2014 when qualification for the 2024 European Championship begins in March.

Reaching the quarterfinals was the minimum expected of Portugal considering the depth of talent in its squad. The team sailed through the group phase by winning its opening two games. Coach Fernando Santos rotated most of his starting lineup for the final group-stage match against South Korea, which won 2-1 on a late goal, and then thrashed Switzerland 6-1 in the round of 16.

Despite Morocco’s strong defence and status as the surprise of the tournament, Portugal was still expected to beat the North African nation in the quarterfinals so, in that sense, it is another missed opportunity and probably an overall underperformance by Ronaldo and his team.

The world is waiting to see if the 37-year-old Ronaldo retires from international duty after scoring 118 goals — a record in men’s soccer — and making 196 appearances in his 19 years with the national team. If Ronaldo does continue, most likely it’s only for Euro 2024 and not also for the 2026 World Cup, by which time he will be aged 41.

At 39, centre back Pepe is likely to have played his final major tournament. What’s more in doubt is the future of Santos, who took charge of Portugal in 2014 after four years at the helm of Greece’s national team. He has a contract through 2024 and repeatedly deflected any talk about leaving his post earlier after the loss to Morocco. “I will have a discussion with the (Portuguese soccer federation) president and when we go back to Portugal, we will deal with the issue of the contract,” Santos said.

A future without Ronaldo might be an alarming proposition but there’s talent coming through. Up front, there’s the 21-year-old Gonçalo Ramos, who scored a hat trick against Switzerland when standing in for Ronaldo in his first start for the national team.

There’s much excitement about the development of António Silva, a 19-year-old centre back at Benfica who seems the natural replacement for Pepe — a player more than twice Silva’s age. João Félix is only 23 so has time on his side, while full-backs Diogo Dalot and Nuno Mendes are only 23 and 20, respectively.

With or without Ronaldo, Portugal is the favourite in a kind-looking qualifying group for Euro 2024. Portugal opens group play in March with a home match against Liechtenstein. The other teams in Group J are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Slovakia and Luxembourg. If Portugal reaches the tournament in Germany, expect the team to be among the favourites — even without its most famous player.

ADELAIDE: Australia completed a series sweep with a lopsided 419-run victory Sunday in the day-night test at the Adelaide Oval, with pace bowlers Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland and Michael Neser snaring three wickets apiece as the West Indies were bundled out for 77 chasing an unlikely 497 to win

West Indies resumed Day 4 at 38-4 with Devon Thomas and Jason Holder each on 8, still needing 459 for an unlikely win with six wickets in hand and six sessions remaining.

It was all over in the opening session, with the tourists losing six wickets for 39 runs. Australia won the first test in Perth by 164 runs and was even more convincing in the second test at the Adelaide Oval, where it remains unbeaten in day-night tests.

The Australians will play South Africa in a three-test series starting next Saturday at the Gabba in Brisbane.

The action was all one-sided on Sunday, with West Indies falling to their worst loss, in terms of runs, to Australia. The West Indies had only one scoring shot before Starc got an edge behind to end the 21-run fifth-wicket partnership by having Thomas (12) caught behind on the last ball of his fourth over.

The veteran left-arm paceman completed another maiden over next and struck again with the first ball of the following over to bowl former skipper Jason Holder (11) with a delivery that swung late and took out off stump as the West Indies slumped to 49-6.

Neser and wicketkeeper Alex Carey combined to take two wickets in an over as the West Indies fell to 76-8. Carey stood up at the stumps and gloved a deflected, juggling catch to remove Roston Chase (13) on the first ball of the over and was up again to catch Joshua Da Silva’s (15) thin edge on the last ball of the over.

Nathan Lyon bowled Alzarri Joseph for a second-ball duck to collect his 450th career test wicket before Neser and Carey combined again to remove No. 11 Marquino Mindley. It was Carey’s sixth catch of the innings.

“A disappointing second game for sure,” West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite said. “We thought in the first game we showed some fight … but very disappointing, we didn’t see the fight here at all.”

Brathwaite said the West Indies had the talent to challenge top-ranked Australia but needed to learn from the heavy loss. “It’s for us to believe in ourselves and learn from all the experiences, all the challenges you go through,” he said. “That is a key to going forward and getting better consistently as a test team. A lot of the guys, this was their first time to Australia so the experience would help.”

The West Indies hasn’t had a test win over Australia since 2003 and hasn’t won a test series against the Australians since 1992-93.

At Adelaide, the Australians dominated immediately after stand-in captain Steve Smith won the toss, with Travis Head (175) and Marnus Labuschagne (163) posting big hundreds to help the home team to 511-7 against an injury-depleted West Indies bowling attack before declaring on the second day. Labuschagne, who scored a double-century and a century in Perth last week, was voted player of the series.

Without skipper Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in the Australian bowling unit, Neser and Boland stepped up, combining with Lyon and Starc to restrict West Indies to 214 in reply. Only Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Anderson Phillip, who were both run out on Day 3, showed genuine composure against the Australian attack in the first innings.

Set a target of 497 after Australia declared its second innings a 199-6, the West Indies’ top order crumbled under lights as Boland took three wickets in an over with the pink ball to have the visitors reeling at 15-3 late Saturday and Starc removed Chanderpaul before stumps.

While Australia’s batters dominated throughout the series, Smith said the bowling group “did the job for us like they’ve done so many times for us in the pink-ball games. We are undefeated and know how to play with the pink ball — it was another good week.”

One by one, Croatia’s players walked up to the spot that would decide their destiny. Find the net or go home. All four of them found the net with unerring accuracy. Alisson Becker had no chance. When the fourth Brazilian player walked up to take what was already a decisive sudden-death penalty, you could feel the tension, even on the TV screen

.Marquinhos had to score to keep Brazil’s dream alive. What stood between him and the dream, though, was the sizable frame of Dominik Livakovic, the man of the match. He had already thwarted multiple Brazilian attempts in normal time apart from keeping out Rodrygo’s first penalty out. The defender hit a daisy-cutter to the keeper’s right but it struck the foot of the post and rebounded safely to spark scenes of unspeakable joy among the Croatian players.Forget the dancing. Forget the dazzling interchange and movement of the previous match. Forget the recency bias. It was always going to be a struggle, like an appointment with a dentist to remove an errant tooth. It is what Croatia do. They suffer. Their opponents also, by extension, have to suffer. In the five knockout-out matches they have featured at the World Cup since 2018, four have gone to extra-time. Three of those, like the one against Japan a few nights ago, ended in penalties. So, it was no surprise that Croatia’s sixth knockout game since the beginning of the 2018 World Cup also went to extra-time. And penalties. In the shootout, Croatia did what they usually do: beat their opponents.

Brazil, this was another World Cup that has slipped away from them. This time, they had the players to win the whole thing. Heck, when they touched in Qatar, they were favourites not on tradition but because of form and the players they had at their disposal.They had displayed brief glimpses, the crowning glory being the 4-1 win over South Korea. But they wanted South Korea to be the starting point of a glorious sixth triumph. Instead, it will now be a footnote in another failed odyssey. The immediate post mortem points to a recent failing of the Selecao in not playing enough European sides.Now, each of their last five World Cup adventures have been cut short at the hands of elite European opposition. Since they beat Germany in the final of the 2002 World Cup, they have lost five times to as many sides. In 2006, it was France (0-1). In 2010, it was Netherlands (1-2). Germany’s 1-7 in 2014 was followed by Belgium’s 1-2 in 2018. Croatia, finalists four years before, came in with one of the most experienced sides. While they did turn up with Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic — arguably the midfield of the tournament — the squad had grown old. Yet, they triumphed.

Brazil had enough chances to win it in normal time but Livakovic kept coming up trumps. Then Neymar finally broke the deadlock with an insouciant piece of skill. Yet, with four minutes left on the clock, Bruno Petkovic found himself all alone on top of the D and his effort breached Alisson’s defences.
10 minutes later, it was all over. Ice in their veins. Brazil, though, were left mulling.