Ronaldo's hat trick sends Portugal to World Cup

Solna, Sweden (SportsNetwork.com) - Cristiano Ronaldo netted a brilliant hat trick on Tuesday as Portugal earned a 3-2 second-leg and 4-2 aggregate victory over Sweden at the Friends Arena to book a place in next summer's World Cup in Brazil.

After lifting Portugal to a 1-0 win over the Swedes in Lisbon on Friday, the Real Madrid superstar got his side off to a flying start in the 49th when he got behind the Swedish defense with a darting run before ripping it past Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson for a 2-0 aggregate lead.

But Sweden's superstar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, had an answer for Ronaldo as the PSG forward brought his side level on the night in the 68th minute when he nodded home a corner kick from close range.

Just three minutes later, Ibrahimovic made it 2-1 on the day and 2-2 on aggregate when he blasted a beautiful free kick from outside the box past Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio.

The hosts needed another goal to take the lead as Portugal still led via away goals, but the tiebreaker quickly became a moot point as Ronaldo snuck behind the backline of Sweden again and slotted a left-footed strike into the bottom right corner in the 77th minute before finishing Sweden off two minutes later when he beat Isaksson with a right-footed strike into the roof of the net for the 4-2 aggregate lead.

Ronaldo's third goal of the night seemed to stun Sweden as they couldn't muster many more quality scoring chances and will miss out on soccer's marquee event.

Elsewhere in European qualifying on Tuesday, Croatia earned a place in the World Cup after a 2-0 second-leg win over Iceland. Bayern Munich man Mario Mandzukic struck first for Croatia in the 27th minute before seeing a straight red card 11 minutes later.

Despite being down a man for the entire second half, Croatia put the result to bed in the 47th minute when Darijo Srna found the back of the net.

Also, Kostas Mitroglou scored in the 23rd minute before the goal was canceled out by a Vasilis Torosidis own goal in the 55th minute as Romania and Greece battled to a 1-1 draw. Greece will move on to the World Cup on the strength of a 4-2 aggregate victory.

Finally on Tuesday, France avoided disaster after rallying from a 2-0 first leg defeat to beat Ukraine 3-0 and advance to the World Cup with a 3-2 aggregate result.

Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho opened the scoring for Les Bleus with a goal in the 22nd minute and Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema brought the hosts level with a goal in the 34th minute.

In the second half, things became even more difficult for Ukraine when Yevhen Khacheridi was sent off in the 47th minute and Sakho got the goal to send the French side through in the 72nd minute.