The Swedish players lined up in front of the cameras and microphones deep into the womb of Friends Arena in Stockholm.

They talked about the match, their feelings, team-mates and the tactics. But on mention of Cristiano Ronaldo, most were just speechless. Some shook their head, some shrugged; you could even catch the sad and sour smile on some faces. But, the words were almost impossible to find. "What can you say?", asked Fulham's Alexander Kacaniklic.

Indeed, there are not many words that can describe Ronaldo's performance on Tuesday night in Stockholm. It was one of those matches he enjoys. After an entertaining but far too cautious first half, in which both teams settled and waited for the other to slip to the mistake, the Swedes had no choice. They opened the second half with a simple "all-in" bet. The biggest arena in Scandinavia became ring with two heavyweights fighting with lowered guards. Ibrahimovic v Ronaldo. Rumble in the . . . north.

It was 29 minutes of football joy, from the moment when Joao Moutinho opened the home defence with brilliant through pass to Ronaldo until he repeated the same 11 minutes from the end. Ibrahimovic's limited team-mates did all they could to help him; the crowd did their best by provoking Ronaldo with Lionel Messi chants and constant booing; Zlatan himself did his best by scoring two goals and giving Sweden hope. "I really believed we were going to win after that second goal, said Sunderland's Sebastian Larsson. Zlatan concurred: "After making it 2-1 it felt like we were on a roll, our hopes grew," he said.

In those moments, Portugal certainly looked lost. Like they were falling apart. It was total chaos, Paulo Bento's boys appeared scared and without ideas. But there was no hope for the hosts, not when Ronaldo decided to take things in to his own hands. It was all over in 120 seconds; cool, balanced, calm and clinical, the Real Madrid forward finished the story. "I was just doing my job," he explained to hordes of Portuguese journalists waiting for him. "I always try to do my best for the club and country."

And both are collecting the fruits of his hard work. He has scored 32 goals in 22 matches played this season and his impact on Real Madrid is huge. But when it comes to the national team, it is more than that. Despite what Bento says, they completely depend on him. In their eight matches since August, Portugal have lost only once: against Brazil, without Ronaldo. What's more, without him they only just managed to beat Luxembourg but in the remainder of the games played in that period, Ronaldo scored nine of their 11 goals.

He is not just the captain, the leader, the key player. Cristiano Ronaldo is the one-man team, the engine of a Portugal side who will play at the World Cup finals in Brazil. Because of him, another football master and another one-man team will watch on television. As Kacaniklic pointed out, it will always be class that decides. And the better man won.