Lucas Torreira and Uruguay in, Ronaldo out

Arsenal-bound Lucas Torreira and his Uruguay teammates defeated Portugal 2-1 to progress to the quarterfinals of the World Cup. The 22-year-old defensive midfielder put in quite a display and helped contain the ego and the player that is Cristiano Ronaldo. Torreira never stopped running and was constantly putting his body on the line to prevent Portugal from mounting an attack.

According to Reddit Torreira covered 11.38 kilometers (approximately seven miles) won five duels made four clearances, blocked three shots and made two tackles. Here he is taking on Ronaldo directly.

It was nice to scroll through my Twitter timeline after the match and see plenty of positive comments from Gunners fans about Torreira’s impending arrival. For a fan base that can be quite brutal and honest when analyzing players the Uruguayan has the Arsenal faithful excited about the start of the new season and the Unai Emery era.

The only negative comments came from the truly pessimistic Arsenal fans. There are those that believe the deal to sign Torreira will now fall through due to the player’s impressive performances.

The latest news on Torreira’s move to North London is that the deal will be finalized following the end of the World Cup. Everyone just needs to remain calm and be patient.

As for the World Cup itself. With both Argentina and now Portugal out of the competition we will no longer have to listen to incessant chatter about Messi vs. Ronaldo. Instead we can concentrate on young players such as France’s Kylian Mbappe, Croatia’s Ante Rebic, Russia’s Aleksandr Golovin and Uruguay’s Luca Torreira.