Ronaldo, Salah and the stars facing make-or-break battles to seal World Cup spot

Anybody who can remember watching a World Cup that did not have Cristiano Ronaldo taking part in it would have to be well into their 20s by now. Those a little older might even remember vividly how leaderless his national team, Portugal, looked the last time they had to go to a World Cup without him.

That was way back in 2002, when two defeats in the group stage, to the USA and to South Korea, put the Portuguese on an early flight home, and one their key strikers, Joao Pinto into a four-match ban from all football for plunging his fist into the stomach of a referee.

Happily for Portuguese pride, a 17-year-old with magical gifts and a fierce will to win was shortly to make his senior debut with Sporting and, although the national team were not immune to losses of temper in the two decades that followed, they would be accompanied to every major tournament after 2002 armed with the footballer who has set peerless standards for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Ronaldo, 37 last month, is still doing it for Manchester United. He scored a hat-trick in his most recent Premier League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur that needed a late goal from the veteran to secure a 3-2 win. He was doing it for Portugal on the opening weekend of the 2018 World Cup, when the last goal - in the 88th minute - of his hat-trick against Spain earned his team a 3-3 draw.

This week, Portugal present him with another challenge of brinkmanship. They are one of the 11 teams in the new-format play-offs that will determine the last three European places at Qatar 2022. He knows the drill but not the novel system.

In the Ronaldo era, Portugal have twice before faced play-offs to reach World Cups, but both the format and the opposition in 2009 and