World Cup 2018: Why Cristiano Ronaldo delivered his most complete tournament display in Spain thriller

This was a great World Cup performance to go with any of the competition’s really historic legends, something that is so important to the Portuguese’s legacy

It was, you might say, a day of two halves for Cristiano Ronaldo.

After the early controversy of the verdict of his Spanish tax case, the Portuguese then proved properly taxing for the Spanish national team, as he gave what was probably his most complete ever tournament performance.

That was not just about the goals, or the records. In fact, if you wanted to really be pedantic, you could say this was a rare game when an element of every strike was gifted to him. The first was a penalty, albeit one he won. The second was a sensational David De Gea error, albeit from a relatively powerful but easy-to-save shot. The third, well… that was something else.

But for Ronaldo it was also something different. Normally a devotee of the knuckle-ball style he did so much to popularise, the erratic nature of that free-kick type is reflected in his international tournament record there: 44 previously taken, none scored. His 45th attempt was a more vintage effort, as he curled it with his in-step and right into the top corner.

This was a great World Cup free-kick to go with those hit by Zico, David Beckham and Ronaldinho.

It was also a great World Cup performance to go with any of the competition’s really historic legends, something that is important to the Portuguese’s legacy, not least for the fact it was also a much more vintage Ronaldo performance.

Cristiano Ronaldo played as a link-up player (AFP/Getty Images)

It was why, for once, it really was about more than the goals.

What really stood out with Ronaldo beyond the scoring was the speed and power to his game. This wasn’t the player who has been forced to restrict himself to the box to conserve his energy, as in pretty much all of his tournaments since the disappointing 2010. This was more like the fulminating force of nature that got him into player-of-the-tournament teams as a youngster, with the way he ran from deep.

It had a disproportionately seismic influence on the game because, for most of the first half, Spain seemed susceptible to – and petrified of – Ronaldo’s capacity for surging in behind them. It was a sight to behold, but of course not just in vast stretches of the Sochi pitch. He was doing it in squeezed space, too, as with the blur of feet that won the penalty after just two minutes.

Gerard Pique may have bitterly complained “Ronaldo has a habit of throwing himself to the ground”, and the Portuguese might have too eagerly been looking for the penalty as he fully committed to the fall and glanced at the ref before he hit the deck, but the only important fact was that his quick feet enticed Nacho into committing himself, and it was a foul.

He scored the spot-kick, of course he did, but he was also doing so much more.

That was why this was probably his most complete tournament performance, fittingly on his record-breaking tournament performance.

Ronaldo converted this brilliant late free-kick (AFP/Getty Images)

Ronaldo showed the intimidating power of his early days at Euro 2004 and 2006, but combined it with the really peak barely-believable number of goals of his prime, as well as the definitively decisive clutch scoring of the Euro 2012 semi-final against Wales – and this against a proper power.

And this at 33, completing quite a day. Ronaldo showed it all, and shows he still has it all, for this most complete of displays.