Cristiano Ronaldo finally ended his 16 month international goal drought as Portugal were rampant 7-0 winners over North Korea putting qualification for the knockout stages beyond all reasonable doubt.
Raul Meireles was the heartbeat of this Portugal side. Allowed a more advanced role in the absence of Deco, the Porto midfielder reveled in the role and had the foil of Tiago giving him added freedom to join centre forward Hugo Almeida at regular intervals.
After Meireles had given his side a half time lead (pictured), Portugal really hit their stride after the turnaround. With three goals in the space of seven minutes coming from Simao, Almeida and Tiago before the hour mark.
After that point Ronaldo had the look of a man who was enjoying his football, if not completely forgetting the scarcity of goals against his name. He finally experienced the large slice of luck any goalscorer needs to get going, becoming the sixth different goalscorer of the day before Tiago notched a second.
Having matched their opponents in the opening half, North Korea will wonder how the were torn apart so readily in the second period. Showing increased attacking intent after their fine performance against Brazil, the Chollima won equality in midfield and peppered shots at the target, though not all of them tested Eduardo.
As they did in match-day one, Portugal hit the woodwork early. Ricardo Carvalho ghosting behind the flapping Ri Myong-Guk but was just inches from converting Simao's cross after just nine minutes, just as well.
The rain poured down and set the stage for Meireles, the Porto midfielder opened the scoring after 29 minutes, racing onto Tiago's beautifully weighted pass before smashing a low drive goalbound.
The goal largely ended the Korean resistance as the Iberian side created all the pressure either side of the break. The second goal came from an angled pass to Almeida, whose knock down allowed Meireles to slide a pass through to Simao who finished expertly after 53 minutes.
Fabio Coentrao was again a shining light of fullback play and, the player, reportedly the subject of a €15M bid from Bayern Munich picked out the head of Almeida who confirmed that Portugal were going to be here for longer than the group stages.
Ronaldo made Tiago's first goal, pulling back from the left wing into the midfielder path, but the captains memorable moment came with just three minutes to go. Showing the hunger that a goal drought brings, he managed to reach the loose ball before Myong-Guk. Comically, the Jabulani ricocheted up, above Ronaldo's head and landed on his neck, looking around to find it, he noticed it was landing kindly on his right boot with an open goal to aim at.
By that stage Liedson had already capitalised by volleying home goal number five, when Duda's cross was not cleared. And, in the final minute, another cross from the left, this time from Miguel Veloso, gave Tiago his second goal to make it a magnificent seven for Portugal.
Portugal: (4-3-3) Eduardo, Miguel, Bruno Alves, Carvalho, Coentrao, Meireles (Veloso '70), Mendes , Tiago, Ronaldo, Almeida (Liedson ' 77), Simao (Duda '74).
Korea DPR (5-4-1): Ri Myong-guk, Cha Jong-hyok (Nam Sung Chol ' 75), Ri Jun-il, Pak Nam-chol (K-I Kim '58), Ri Kwang-chon, Pak Chol-jin, An Yong-hak, Ji Yun-nam, Mun In-guk (Kim Yong-Jun '58), Hong Yong-jo, Jong Tae-se.
Referee: P Pozo (CHI)
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