Rafael Leão dropped to his knees. His cross had just been flicked into the net by Gonçalo Ramos to take Portugal to the last 16 of the World Cup. Leão’s expression was not one of delight, but relief.

Billed as the last dance for two footballing icons, it was Luka Modric who, at the age of 40, had to leave what will surely be his final World Cup. Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, plays on, and scored and was even substituted in a match of endless action. But this was a contest about more than two individuals, who were far from the most influential players on show, even if Ronaldo was bewilderingly named player of the match. Instead this was an old-fashioned World Cup battle between hardened teams, with momentum swinging first one way then the other then back again. It was also a match stuffed with incident, including – for the first time in World Cup history – four disallowed goals, one of them denying Croatia an equaliser in the very last second of the match.

Two of international football’s 200 club have had parallel careers with their countries, but will this be their last meeting?

Can you remember what you were doing on 1 March 2006? Perhaps you were at Anfield, watching England beat Uruguay 2-1. You might have seen Switzerland put three goals past Scotland at Hampden Park.

Or you might have watched Luka Modric make his debut for Croatia. They beat Argentina 3-2, with Lionel Messi scoring his first international goal. The same evening, Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in a 3-0 Portugal victory against Saudi Arabia, no doubt dreaming of the day he would live and work in the country.

The irony of the superstar-heavy narrative is the way it embellishes rather than diminishes importance of the collective

“Cristiano Ronaldo’s record-equalling sixth World Cup got off to a disappointing start,” began the Reuters match report of Portugal’s 1-1 draw against the Democratic Republic of the Congo last week. And yes, OK: everyone knows how this game works and why everyone plays it. On one hand, perhaps the greatest sporting day in the history of the world’s 15th most populous country. On the other, 41-year-old man does not score. It’s no contest, really. Get those sweet keywords front and left. Harvest that delicious search traffic. Perhaps you even noticed how I just did exactly the same thing.

And yet something does feel qualitatively different this summer: a tectonic shift driven partly by events on the pitch and partly at the behest of the industry itself. This is a World Cup swimming in star names, and never have those star names been so unapologetically, unquestioningly invoked. France do not beat Iraq; instead Kylian Mbappé throws down the gauntlet to Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and the rest. According to Google, Miroslav Klose’s goals record has been searched more at this tournament than in the year he set it. At times the group phase has felt like an inconvenient distraction from the real business of the Golden Boot race. (Can Lionel Messi lift the one trophy he hasn’t won yet?)

• 41-year-old heavily criticised after DR Congo draw

• ‘It felt like I’d already retired from football,’ he adds

Cristiano Ronaldo savoured the end of a “difficult, dark week” after scoring twice in Portugal’s 5-0 rout of Uzbekistan and becoming the first player to find the net in six World Cups.

Ronaldo and Portugal had come under heavy criticism after a flat draw against Democratic Republic of the Congo. There had been a particular spotlight on the 41-year-old Ronaldo, who had not scored in 10 major tournament games before Tuesday’s fixture. There have long been question marks over his continued ability to lead Portugal on this stage, but after the final whistle he shouted into a television camera: “I’m back, I’m back.”

Golden oldies fighting for the golden boot? Let us not get ahead of ourselves. But it will do Cristiano Ronaldo’s ego no harm that he is off the mark at this World Cup, particularly in light of Lionel Messi’s voracious appetite to stoke fires that started long ago. Two first-half goals gave Houston’s public what they came for and laid an unfortunate run to rest. Until this contribution to what quickly became a leisurely non-contest, Ronaldo had not scored in 10 major tournament matches.

Thank goodness, then, for an Uzbekistan defence that would have struggled to hold firm in a Masters game. There could have been no better opponent to help Ronaldo get his eye in, Nuno Mendes’ free-kick, an Abdukodir Khusanov own goal and Rafael Leão’s late adornment emphasising the point. Fabio Cannavaro’s players could not get near opponents of this level.

One of the finest players to grace the game no longer deserves his place in the team and should take it upon himself to stand down to serve their chances

At 41, Cristiano Ronaldo’s problem is not his age. It is that nobody seems willing to tell him to his face what everyone else can see. In Portugal, patience for the legend has run dry.

Ronaldo is not fit to be a Portugal starter any more. What would have sounded like a treasonous statement a few years ago now looks an obvious truth. At least to everyone except the national team manager, Roberto Martínez, and his coaching staff.

Veterans such as Messi and Modric are much in evidence at the finals, but an obsession with celebrity may undermine Portugal

It turns out that 2022 wasn’t Lionel Messi’s last dance after all. He will turn 39 during the World Cup, but despite concerns over the “muscular overload” that led to him limping out of Inter Miami’s 6-4 win over Philadelphia Union on Sunday, he remains the figure on whom Argentinian hopes rely.

Messi won’t be the only veteran in Canada, the US and Mexico: Cristiano Ronaldo, aged 41, will also be there – inevitably, given how his career and Messi’s seem inextricably bound. So will Luka Modric and Edin Dzeko, plus the goalkeepers Manuel Neuer, Craig Gordon, Guillermo Ochoa and Vozinha, all of whom are 40. And there is one 39-year-old other than Messi: the Japan defender Yuto Nagatomo.

The face of the Saudi Pro League scored twice in the final game of the season to secure the title with Al-Nassr

Cristiano Ronaldo will report for World Cup duty fresh from winning his first major trophy since moving to Saudi Arabia in 2022, after Al-Nassr became Saudi Pro League champions last Thursday. That’s the good news for Portugal’s coach, Roberto Martínez, but there is more to think about when it comes to his biggest name.

Although the domestic season ended all smiles for Ronaldo, five days earlier there was much doom and gloom around his club. Al-Nassr lost the final of the AFC Champions League Two, Asia’s Europa League, to Gamba Osaka of Japan. It was a poor performance and Ronaldo came in for special criticism. Not only did clips of his lack of movement, lack of pressing, missed chances and blocked shots circulate on social media, there was disappointment that, almost as soon as the final whistle went, he left the field, missing the medals’ and trophy presentations.

Footballer has 664 million followers but his boring presence is a reminder of how reel-life destroys what it touches

Buy the backpack airlines hate. Fawn strangely at a child athlete. This TV presenter drank olive oil for a month and absolutely nothing happened. The streets (no actual streets involved) won’t forget (robots can’t forget) Paul Pogba (or equivalent coding).

Nineties dance hits. Ruben Amorim loyalists. Argue with fake fans over a fake photo of fake empty seats. Buy a backpack that hates you because you once thought about buying a backpack, and like a Hungarian grandmother it will never, ever forget and you will be punished.

Die finnische Violinistin Elina Vähälä rettet ihr Instrument mit einer Ninja-Aktion, Nicole Kidman büffelt CIA-Begriffe, und Cristiano Ronaldo setzt auf die Kraft des schwarzen Kaffees.

Eine SZ-Redakteurin begegnet in Lissabon auf Schritt und Tritt Cristiano Ronaldo, auf Boxershorts, Handyhüllen, Hauswänden. Oh, und der Mann da vorne, das wird doch nicht etwa ...? Drei Anekdoten aus aller Welt.

• No financial details of deal with Saudi-owned club

• Portuguese player already owns share in Al-Nassr

Cristiano Ronaldo announced on Thursday that he had acquired a 25% stake in Saudi-owned Spanish second division club Almería.

“This strategic investment in UD Almería reflects Ronaldo’s long-term commitment to professional football ownership,” read a statement from his new sports holding company, CR7 Sports Investments, which gave no financial details of the deal.

• Al-Nassr forward reportedly unhappy with transfer policy

• ‘No one determines decisions beyond their own club’

Cristiano Ronaldo has been told by the Saudi Pro League that “no individual – however significant – determines decisions beyond their own club” amid a dispute over transfer spending.

The Portuguese superstar, who turned 41 on Thursday, is believed to be unhappy with Al-Nassr’s lack of activity in the January transfer window.

League’s star said to be unhappy over his club’s transfer dealings and Karim Benzema’s move. Now he could face his first backlash

Jurassic Park sounded great given the spectacular beasts on display, but there was chaos after they started to do their own thing. When Cristiano Ronaldo, surely the T rex, and Karim Benzema, perhaps a velociraptor, are scoring in spectacular fashion there are headlines around the world, but the Saudi Pro League is finding out that when they start to flex their muscles off the pitch, there is even more interest and, it turns out, a real problem for the competition.

What happened on a manic Monday in the SPL should have been about what unfolded on the pitch. Al-Hilal, in first, drew with third-placed Al-Ahli. Al-Nassr won, to stay second, closing to within a point of the leaders. If Brendan Rodgers, having a whale of a time with Al-Qadsiah, wins his game in hand then four points will separate the top four with just over a third of the season remaining. It is the kind of title race most leagues would love.

Today’s rumours are retreating to the dark

Karim Benzema’s move to Al-Hilal has cast fresh doubt on the future of Cristiano Ronaldo at Al-Nassr. The 40-year-old was missing from Monday’s 1-0 Saudi Pro League win at Al-Riyadh, the day Benzema’s move from Al-Ittihad to Al-Hilal was confirmed. Ronaldo is reportedly dissatisfied with how Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which also has a stake in Newcastle, is controlling the affairs of Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr, unhappy that a rival club have signed his former Real Madrid teammate. Sounds plausible?

Dwight McNeil was all set to sign for Crystal Palace from Everton before Jean-Philippe Mateta’s switch to Milan fell through. The Eagles lodged a very late £20m bid for the former Burnley schemer, but reportedly moved the goalposts after failing to offload Mateta, preferring a loan deal with an option to buy instead.

• Portugal forward was sent off against Republic of Ireland

• He missed Armenia game so is free to play at tournament

Cristiano Ronaldo has been cleared to play in the opening matches of Portugal’s World Cup campaign after he was handed a suspended sentence for his red card against the Republic of Ireland.

The Portugal forward, who was a guest of president Donald Trump in the White House last week, had a customary three-match ban for violent conduct commuted by Fifa’s disciplinary committee on Tuesday to a one-game ban, with two further matches suspended under a year’s probation. In effect Ronaldo has served his suspension, having sat out Portugal’s final World Cup qualifying match against Armenia.

A pension-pot World Cup looms and with Trump in the White House and a crown prince at his back, it is now a safe space

It was hard to choose one favourite photo from football’s double-header at the White House this week. In part this is because the pictures from Donald Trump’s state dinner with Mohammed bin Salman and his in-house hype men Cristiano Ronaldo and Gianni Infantino were everywhere, recycled feverishly across the internet, dusted with their own drool-stained commentary by the wider Ronaldo-verse.

Mainly there were just so many jaw-droppers. Perhaps you liked the one of Trump and Ronaldo strolling the halls of power, Ronaldo dressed all in black and laughing uproariously, like a really happy ninja. Or the one of Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez standing either side of a weirdly beaming Trump at his desk, holding up some kind of large heraldic key as though they’ve just been presented with their own wind-up wooden sex-grandad.