Cristiano Ronaldo's Stunning Hat-Trick Sends Portugal To World Cup Finals (VIDEO)

Bow, Mere Mortals! Ronaldo Hat-Tricks Sends Portugal To World Cup Finals

Cristiano Ronaldo struck a devastating hat-trick to fire Portugal into the World Cup finals at the expense of Sweden and win his highly-anticipated duel with fellow superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Ronaldo earned Portugal a narrow lead with a late strike in the play-off first leg and the Real Madrid ace was his side's hero again with goals in the 50th, 77th and 79th minutes to seal a 4-2 aggregate win.

The Portugal captain's last two goals came after Sweden had threatened to turn the tie on its head when, after trailing 2-0 overall, they battled back to 2-2 thanks to two goals in four minutes from talisman Ibrahimović.

Bow, mere mortals: Ronaldo hit a stunning hat-trick in Sweden

With 15 minutes to go it was anyone's game, but two more clinical finishes from Ronaldo settled the contest in Portugal's favour and means the Euro 2012 semi-finalists will be gracing Brazil next summer while Sweden skipper Ibrahimovic and his team-mates will be staying at home.

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Ronaldo vs Sweden

Portugal bossed the majority of the first half at the Friends Arena in Stockholm and home keeper Andreas Isaksson did well to keep out Bruno Alves' downward header in the 15th minute before Ronaldo took centre-stage.

The £80million man had three attempts in five minutes just after the half-hour mark before setting up Hugo Almeida for a great chance that the Besiktas striker headed into the side-netting.

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