LUSAIL, Qatar : Portugal's Goncalo Ramos was as surprised as anyone at being named in the starting lineup for Tuesday's 6-1 hammering of Switzerland in the World Cup last-16 and managing to score a hat-trick was beyond his imagination.Making his first World Cup start, Ramos smashed three goals past the Swiss and set up another to propel Portugal into the quarter-finals for the first time since 2006.Ramos, 21, made headlines before kick off when the teams were announced, picked by Fernando Santos to lead the attack in place of Cristiano Ronaldo, who was relegated to the bench.
It did not take long for the youngster to become one of the biggest stories so far at the Qatar World Cup. "I think not even in my wildest dreams I thought about being in the starting 11 for the knockout phase," Ramos said, smiling.
Asked if Ronaldo spoke to him before the game, Ramos said the issue of him being benched did not come up among the players. "Honestly, in our team, no one talked about it.
Cristiano as our captain, as he always did, he helped us, he gave encouragement to us, not only to myself, but our team mates."Ramos made his debut in Portugal's 4-0 win over Nigeria in a warm-up game a few days before the World Cup and played a total of 10 minutes as a substitute in two of the three group matches.