Portugal’s Ramos scores first knockout hat-trick since 1990

World Cup history

Portugal’s Gonçalo Ramos pulled off a 6-1 win over Switzerland last seen in 1990: a hat-trick in the knockout stages of a World Cup. The 21-year-old striker from Benfica Lisbon was surprisingly brought in for Cristiano Ronaldo (37) by coach Fernando Santos and made the game of his life.

The last hat-trick in a knockout game before the Portuguese was Tomas Skuhravy (57), who dominated Czechoslovakia’s 4-1 round of 16 defeat of Costa Rica in 1990 and was soon rewarded with a transfer from Sparta Prague to Genoa CFC.

A total of 16 footballers scored three times in the knockout phase of a World Cup – most of them did so between 1930 and 1954. One of them was Max Morlock (†), who was on his way to the first German world championship title in a 7-2 win over Turkey in the 1st .round triple hit.

Other prominent names among the hat-tricks are Brazil’s – then 17-year-old – Pelé (82) in 1958 against France (5-2) and the Englishman Sir Geoff Hurst (80), who was the only footballer to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final. In 1966 he was the key player in the 4-2 win over Germany. In the 17 World Cups since 1958, only eight players have scored three goals or more in a knockout game.

The list of quadruple goalscorers is only four names long. Also included is Portugal legend Eusébio (†), who shot down North Korea 5-3 in the quarter-finals in 1966 at the age of 24.

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