Unfortunately, it had to be one of Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic who had to miss out on World Cup 2014. The two players, talismanic figures for their respective teams, scored five goals between them in Portugal’s epic 3-2 win over Sweden in the second leg of their playoff tie. Ibra netted twice while Ronaldo scored thrice in front of a crowd close to 50,000 in Solna.
However Ibrahimovic is never short of a quote and the PSG forward remarked that the World Cup would not be worth watching without him. Ibra is a superstar in his own right, but there will be more than a few who will argue that the World Cup would have been poorer without Ronaldo, whose consistency with Real and Man Utd in the last decade has been nothing short of incredible.
One thing is for sure, a World Cup without me is nothing to watch. Congratulations to Portugal, but both teams deserved to get to the World Cup
Given Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo’s ages, this was essentially a last shot for them at World Cup glory. At the next World Cup in 2018, Ibra will be in his mid 30’s, while Ronaldo will be 33.