Cristiano Ronaldo believes that Portugal are worthy of their place at the World Cup finals next summer following their play-off win over Sweden.
Scorer of the only goal in the first leg in Lisbon, the Real Madrid great fired a clinical hat-trick to kill off Swedish hopes in Solna's Friends Arena on Tuesday evening as Portugal claimed a 4-2 aggregate victory.
Ronaldo had made it 1-0 on the night just after half-time, but Portugal sat off their hosts and allowed Sweden skipper Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score twice to put Erik Hamren's side within a goal of qualification.
However, no sooner had that head of steam been built than Ronaldo himself extinguished the home side's hopes, two devastating finishes securing the visitors' passage to Brazil.
And despite acknowledging a nervy spell, during the second period, the Portuguese talisman believes his side more than deserved their win.
"We were better in the first and second game, I'm happy to once again have helped the team to win," said Ronaldo.
"I think we deserved it 100 per cent.
"We let Sweden grow in confidence and we retreated and suffered but that's part of the spectacle of football. We reacted well and we ended up winning."
Kudos to Portuguese!!
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