Ronaldo the difference as Portugal narrowly edges past Russia

In football, inevitability is in abundance.

With 56 goals in all competitions for club and country this term, one of those certainties is that Cristiano Ronaldo will score.

Make that 57, as the Real Madrid star's 74th goal for Portugal was enough to best Russia 1-0 in Wednesday's Confederations Cup clash. If last year's Euro 2016 winning side was a team of destiny, Fernando Santos' latest installment is one that is capable of seeing out results courtesy of an 11th consecutive victory dating back to the 2014 World Cup.

Russia's intent to stifle Portugal's attack was apparent from the jump, and try as Stanislav Cherchesov's lot did, it proved to be futile in the first half as Ronaldo breached the back-three with a towering header in the eighth minute.

Almost immediately, the frenzied mood at a packed Spartak Stadium was dampened as Russia shot-stopper Igor Akinfeev celebrated his 100th cap with an all-too-familiar activity of retrieving the ball from the back of his net.

Portugal had other chances before the break, as Ronaldo and AC Milan summer signing Andre Silva continued to threaten against the run of play, with the latter proving wasteful in several instances.

A tale of two halves, Cherchesov appeared wise in switching gears at the interval.

The half-time introduction of Rostov midfielder Alexandr Yerokhin breathed life into Russia's attack and it showed, as the 2018 World Cup host started the second stanza on the front foot. Naturally, that also opened the match up, and Ronaldo nearly doubled the advantage with a looping header that flew narrowly wide before the star skied a side-footed effort moments later.

Still, the Russians were arguably the better side in the second half, and when Spartak Moscow's Georgi Dzhikiya fired an injury-time header barely above the bar, it felt like the chances for a deserved stalemate were all but lost.

With the victory, Portugal sits atop the group on four points, with Russia second on three, and Mexico third on a point ahead of its test against New Zealand later in the day.