🗣️ Joao Neves reveals why he copied Cristiano Ronaldo's celebration after scoring his first World Cup goal:
“The answer is simple. Without Cristiano, that goal probably doesn't happen. Before the game, we knew DR Congo would focus heavily on him. Messi had just scored a hat-trick, the whole world was talking about Ronaldo and every defender thought stopping him was the key to stopping Portugal.
So the plan was simple. Let Cristiano attract the attention and let somebody else attack the space. That's where I came in. The idea was for both of us to attack the box together. If two or three defenders followed Cristiano, somebody would be free.
And that's exactly what happened. The ball came in, everyone looked at Cristiano and for a split second I was free. That's all you need at this level. One moment. One touch. Goal.
So when I celebrated, it felt right to do Cristiano's celebration. He created the distraction that gave me my first World Cup goal. Afterwards he just laughed and said: ‘See? Sometimes it's useful having everyone mark me.’”