Ronaldo fires Portugal to BrazilCristiano Ronaldo struck a devastating hat-trick to firePortugal into the World Cup finals at the expense of Sweden and win hishighly-anticipated duel with fellow superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Ronaldoearned Portugal a narrow lead with a late strike in the play-off firstleg and the Real Madrid ace was his side's hero again with goals in the50th, 77th and 79th minutes to seal a 4-2 aggregate win.
ThePortugal captain's last two goals came after Sweden had threatened toturn the tie on its head when, after trailing 2-0 overall, they battledback to 2-2 thanks to two goals in four minutes from talismanIbrahimovic.
With 15 minutes to go it was anyone's game,but two more clinical finishes from Ronaldo settled the contest inPortugal's favour and means the Euro 2012 semi-finalists will be gracingBrazil next summer while Sweden skipper Ibrahimovic and his team-mateswill be staying at home.
Portugal bossed the majority ofthe first half at the Friends Arena in Stockholm and home keeper AndreasIsaksson did well to keep out Bruno Alves' downward header in the 15thminute before Ronaldo took centre-stage.
The £80million manhad three attempts in five minutes just after the half-hour mark beforesetting up Hugo Almeida for a great chance that the Besiktas strikerheaded into the side-netting.
At that point it was allPortugal, but Sweden briefly threatened when Ibrahimovic laid the balloff to Kim Kallstrom, whose long-range effort was well-struck but tooclose to Rui Patricio.
The half then ended with the twosuperstars on the pitch missing reasonable half-chances, with Ronaldoskewing an effort horribly wide before Ibrahimovic volleyed over at theother end.
Both of those two players were heavily involved again as the second half started in barnstorming fashion.
Ibrahimovicshowed great strength and determination to poke the ball back toSebastian Larsson on the edge of the six-yard box and it needed a vitalblock from Patricio to keep the score goalless.
Moments later Portugal took the lead with a blistering counter-attack.
Joao Moutinho's brilliant through-ball found the run of Ronaldo and he drilled a left-footed shot past Isaksson.
Thatleft Sweden needing three goals to keep their World Cup dream alive,but Ibrahimovic gave them a lifeline when he easily held off thechallenge of Alves to head home Kallstrom's 67th-minute corner.
Secondslater Sweden felt they should have had a penalty when Kallstrom wentcrashing in the area under a challenge from Joao Pereira, but refereeHoward Webb booked the home midfielder for diving.
Nevertheless, all the momentum was now with Sweden and three minutes later they won a free-kick right on the edge of the area.
Itwas tailor-made for Ibrahimovic and he did not disappoint, the Paris StGermain striker drilling a low shot through the wall and under Patricioto level up the scores at 2-2 on aggregate.
Swedensuddenly looked favourites, but Ronaldo showed why he is rated as theleading player on the planet alongside Lionel Messi as he wrestled backthe initiative with two superb finishes and that proved decisive.
Thefirst saw him latch on to Almeida's through-ball and fire anotherleft-footed shot beyond Isaksson, and then two minutes later he
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his hat-trick - his fifth for club and country in the last three months- when he rounded the Sweden goalkeeper and stroked into the gapingnet.
http://espnfc.com/us/en/report/382194/report.html?soccernet=true&cc=5901France 3-0 UkraineFranceproduced a stunning comeback in their World Cup play-off againstUkraine, winning 3-0 in Paris to progress to the tournament with a 3-2aggregate scoreline.
Mamadou Sakho opened the scoring and twoerroneous offside decisions balanced each other out as Karim Benzemascored shortly after seeing another effort disallowed.
And afterUkraine had Yevhen Khacheridi sent off, an unfortunate own goal by theirsubstitute Oleg Gusev completed a remarkable turnaround for Les Bleus,who were unrecognisable from their lacklustre showing in Kiev lastFriday.
The conditions at the Stade de France were causingproblems early on, with several players slipping and the surface cuttingup badly, and Ukraine's Ruslan Rotan was booked in the seventh minutefor clumsily bringing down Franck Ribery.
Karim Benzema's poorcontrol and pass, with team-mates well placed, saw a promising Frenchattack break down and Paul Pogba headed Mathieu Valbuena's corner wellover.
Benzema then nodded a Valbuena free-kick over as Francestarted on the front foot, and they got a deserved opener in the 22ndminute.
Valbuena's free-kick from the right was not cleared andwhen Ribery's fierce low drive was blocked, Sakho followed up to lashhome.
There was controversy as Benzema was initially denied agoal, the offside flag wrongly raised when he turned a low cross in withhis torso from a yard out.
Valbuena's excellent drive, withminimal backlift, was tipped away by Andrei Pyatov - who had seen hisnational record run of clean sheets ended at eight by Sakho.
Benzemagot his goal, though, in the 34th minute when he side-footed home afteran almighty scramble - though on this occasion he was shown to becomfortably offside when the ball took a final touch off Valbuena'schest.
Sakho and Khacheridi were both booked in the aftermath of Roman Bezus' foul on Ribery.
HugoLloris saved Andriy Yarmolenko's shot in first-half injury time to keephis side two up and the tie all square on aggregate.
Ukraine were reduced to 10 men early in the second period when Khacheridi collected a second yellow card for a foul on Ribery.
YohanCabaye fired Valbuena's corner over and Benzema then shot wastefullyover with his left foot when given a clear sight of goal.
MathieuDebuchy's spectacular volley flew wide before Ukraine missed a gloriouschance to retake the lead in the tie. Gusev's volley took a deflectionoff Sakho but Roman Zozulya was unable to react in time to beat Lloris.
Pyatov pushed away Cabaye's swerving effort but France soon had the vital third goal.
Agood strike from Patrice Evra was pushed away by Pyatov but Pogba laidthe ball off to Ribery, whose deflected shot was unwittingly turned inby Gusev with Sakho lurking at the far post.
Ribery could not get Benzema's pass under control and skied a shot over when off balance.
Pyatov magnificently saved from unmarked substitute Olivier Giroud and the Arsenal striker powered another header over.
Ukraine'slast chance disappeared with Yaroslav Rakitsky's well-struck volleystraight down Lloris' throat and it was Didier Deschamps' side who wereleft looking ahead to a summer in Brazil.
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