{"id":7824,"date":"2019-06-05T18:09:04","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T22:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7824"},"modified":"2019-06-08T09:10:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-08T13:10:13","slug":"ronaldo-hat-trick-sends-portugal-through-to-nations-league-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7824","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo Hat-Trick Sends Portugal Through to Nations League Final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2.43341306.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7825\" srcset=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2.43341306.jpg 600w, http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/2.43341306-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s stunning hat-trick fired hosts Portugal into the Nations League final after a 3-1 win over Switzerland at the Estadio do Dragao.<\/p>\n<p>The Juventus forward opened the scoring with a fine free-kick after 25 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Switzerland, though, equalized through a controversial penalty in the 56th minute.<\/p>\n<p>German referee Felix Brych had initially awarded a spot-kick to Portugal, before going back to check a previous incident in the other area.<\/p>\n<p>Following a long delay while he watched replays on the pitchside monitor, Switzerland were given a penalty for what was ruled as a foul by Nelson Semedo on Steven Zuber. AC Milan defender Ricardo Rodriguez converted from 12 yards.<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo, though, had the final say when he struck twice during the closing three minutes to complete his treble.<\/p>\n<p>Bernardo Silva cut the ball back for the Juventus man to drive past Yann Sommer and Ronaldo then made sure of a place in Sunday\u2019s final against either England or Holland with another fine low finish.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, England football fans and police have clashed in Portugal ahead of a key semi final match.<\/p>\n<p>Video on social media showed police holding batons and riot shields chasing supporters as the Portugal versus Switzerland game was screened in a fan zone in the center of Porto.<\/p>\n<p>An eyewitness claimed fans wearing England shirts and chanting England songs started throwing drinks and bottles when Portugal scored.<\/p>\n<p>In the footage, several objects can be seen flying through the air in the direction of the police, who then charge towards the fans.<\/p>\n<p>Some of those watching cheered and filmed the altercation on their phones.<\/p>\n<p>England are due to play the Netherlands on Thursday in the Nations League semi final, 35 miles away from Porto in Guimaraes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-7824\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7824&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-7824\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7824&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-google-plus-1\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-google-7824\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7824&amp;share=google-plus-1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Google+\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7824\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s stunning hat-trick fired hosts Portugal into the Nations League final after a 3-1 win over Switzerland at the Estadio do Dragao. The Juventus forward opened the scoring with a fine free-kick after 25 minutes. Switzerland, though, equalized through&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-7824\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7824&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-7824\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7824&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-google-plus-1\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-google-7824\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7824&amp;share=google-plus-1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Google+\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=7824\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7824"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7826,"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7824\/revisions\/7826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}