Madrid sports newspapers put their focus today on Cristiano Ronaldo’s stunning exhibition with Portugal, scoring a hat-trick to beat Sweden 2-3 and qualifying his national team for the 2014 World Cup.
“Is there someone better than Cristiano?,” As titles. “He knocked Sweden out with his 64th, 65th and 66th goals of the year,” they point out. “After his exhibition, FIFA extended the Ballon d’Or voting window,” the Madrid daily highlights.
Meanwhile, Marca claims Ronaldo played “the match of his life.” The most sold Spanish newspaper argues “it was an exhibition of strength and leadership.”
Both papers also emphasize Karim Benzema’s great performance with France. “Benzema leads France in an epic victory,” Marca titles, highlighting the fact that the French national team came back from a 2-0 against Ukraine. “Varane, Benzema and Modric will also play the World Cup,” As reports in a mention to Croatia’s victory over Iceland.
Regarding international games, Madrid dailies coincide in bringing to their front pages the fact that Real Madrid’s defender Alvaro Arbeloa was close to playing as a goalkeeper in yesterday’s Spain’s 0-1 loss against South Africa.
Victor Valdes fell injured when Vicente del Bosque had made all the substitutions, but the FIFA delegate and the referee allowed one more. “The referee breaks the rules and prevents Arbeloa from playing as goalie,” Marca states.
