Ronaldo's World Cup hopes go down to the wire

When Brazil looked to be slipping away from Cristiano Ronaldo, a scramble for the ball inside Israel's goal area ended up finding the back of the net. Fabio Coentrao saved the World Cup hopes for Paulo Bento's team, levelling the scores to 3-3. He managed it in the 93rd minute, on the whistle, preventing Israel from escaping in the classifications; Bento's side retaining its options for second place.

The balance of the game tipped in Portugal's favour very early on. Bruno Alves put his team one up in the second minute, after putting away a corner from Veloso. Israel, however, far from being intimidated, pushed forward, spurred on by its fans. Hemed brought the 1-1 with a fine goal: spinning round in the area and whipping the ball past Patricio's outstretched hands.

Eli Gutman's outfit went one up just before half time, with a powerful shot from Ben Basat in the 40th minute, and then extended its lead in the 70th minute: Gershon taking advantage of Bruno Alves's catastrophic failure to clear a long ball from a corner.

The World Cup was looking like a distant possibility for Portugal at that point and the team made a heroic effort to prevent Cristiano Ronaldo from missing out on such a huge event. Ronaldo himself passed to Postiga to score in the 74th minute, and Coentrao later made it a draw, keeping the Portuguese team's competition hopes alive.