Do you understand now, Alexi, why we cannot just jettison 150 years of history and let football become a game of four quarters?!?How else would we describe the madness that unfolded in Toronto on Thursday than by resorting to the tried-and-tested description of Portugal v Croatia being a game of two halves?Before we dive into the full box set of controversies, drama and narratives, let us start with a quick recap of those two halves.First half: Portugal have the ball, Croatia don’t.It is really hot and sticky. The old man up front is having an absolute nightmare… Ante Budimir, that is. His opposite number, so to speak, is also having a quiet game, but we at least notice all of his touches because the vociferous Croatian support boos every time it happens.The whistle blows for half-time and I am already wondering if I should follow the advice on the LED advertising boards and rush to (your own favourite prediction market) and buy shares in another penalty shootout.Second half: Everything changed.First up, Budimir got hooked. He had been on borrowed time since the first hydration break. He was replaced by 23-year-old Igor Matanovic, 11 years his junior and it showed. Suddenly, Croatia had someone to aim for.Within minutes, Nikola Vlasic and Mateo Kovacic both had decent efforts saved by Diogo Costa in the Portugal goal. Having spent the first half scampering from side to side like defenders in a handball match, Kovacic and Luka Modric were now playing like two point guards, exchanging passes, driving their team up the court, sorry, pitch.Eight minutes into this half that was so different to the first you could have almost forgiven FIFA for trying to sell it as another game (oh no, I have given them another dreadful idea, haven’t I?), Josep Stanisic made an overlapping run down the right. His cross went over the heads of the grappling centre-backs and strikers… was it another near miss for the increasingly charmed Portuguese goal?Hold on, who is that enterprising chap at the back post? I recognise him… it’s Ivan Perisic, the man who broke English hearts in the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup in Russia and then broke Tottenham hearts by failing to do anything like it in two seasons when he looked every bit like a 33-year-old winger looking forward to retirement.Now 37, this was the Perisic who has always turned up for Croatia. Having taken a touch or two to control the ball, he smashed it past Costa and Croatia were 1-0 up.Two minutes later, they were 2-0 up… for about five seconds until we realised that there had been an offside in the build-up to Vlasic’s finish. Croatia were rampant and Portugal were in pieces.What on earth would we journalists have to write about if the score stayed like this, wondered nobody, because at that precise moment he who has not yet been mentioned popped up with a sublime touch to control a cross-field pass with the outside of his foot and then lift the ball over Dominik Livakovic’s head.Cristiano Ronaldo has only gone and done it. An 11th World Cup goal, his first in the knockout rounds, his 25th in major championships… oh, he was offside, but only just. Back to the basketball match.Ronaldo scores a beautiful disallowed goal (Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP via Getty Images)Or is it? Roberto Martinez has seen enough of his tiring midfield to know he must change lines. Four off, four on. We are now playing hockey, which seems apt in Canada.A minute later and Portugal have a corner. Croatia head it away and launch another attack. Hold on? Why are the Portuguese bench jumping up and down, waving their arms about?Oh, I see. Vlasic had decided to throw another sport into the mix by rugby tackling Renato Veiga at that corner. Before anyone in the stadium had a clue what was going on, Norwegian referee Espen Eskas was at the VAR monitor. He did not take long to make his mind up, it was a penalty.Yep, Ronaldo only went and did it. An 11th World Cup goal, his first… oh, I have done this bit already. But what I did not get to explain last time was that he and at least half the 45,000 people in the stadium yelled the loudest “Siuu!” I have ever heard. Seriously, I may have a case for an industrial injury claim.Ronaldo exclaims after his strike from the penalty spot. It was loud! (Photo: Cole Burston / AFP via Getty Images)The game then settled down, as both sides settled for… what am I talking about? They both continued to take wild swings at each other, like drunks brawling in the street.Kovacic nearly scores with two great shots within about 10 seconds of each other, and then Petar Sucic, Croatia’s next big star, did find the net, only for this one to be chalked off for offside, too. This was as close as the Ronaldo offside goal.And then Martinez decided to show some main-character energy of his own by making his fifth substitution, Ruben Neves. But who would be coming off the defensive midfielder?What, is that the No 7 being held up? As in seven minutes of added time? Already?Ronaldo departs… but not from the World Cup (Photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images)No, Ronaldo’s time was up.Might that be the last sight of him at a World Cup?The board goes up again and this time it says there will be 10 more minutes of this. Great!And only four of those had ticked by when Goncalo Ramos, the man I am sure I had seen bring the curtain down on Ronaldo’s Portugal career in Qatar four years ago by scoring a World Cup hat-trick against Switzerland, soared above the Croatia defence to flick a Rafael Leao cross past the despairing Livakovic.It was a brilliant goal. One worthy of winning this match or any other. But it was not the last act in this drama.The clock kept ticking: 90+8, 90+9, 90+10, 90+11… Croatia are going route one now but Portugal are holding firm. Substitute Francisco Conceicao even has time to weave into the Croatia box and slice a shot wide.Surely this is over… what?!?! Perisic, the Croatian goal-involvement legend, pumps the ball into the box, it bounces off Mario Pasalic and a combination of Neves and Josko Gvardiol bundle it into the net. Cue delirium.Record scratch. Eskas is at that VAR box again!It is at this point that our final guest sport entered the chat.“Hello, cricket! What are you doing here?”“Oh, I am here to tell you that the inertial measurement unit in the Trionda match ball has caused a disturbance in the force. That cross into the box grazed a hair on Matanovic’s head, making Pasalic, who was onside, offside. Sorry!”We then got a few more bonus minutes while Croatia’s fans used the pitch as a recycling centre and various volunteers tried to clear up. Oh, I probably should have mentioned that there was another unwanted item on the pitch minutes earlier, when an idiot in a Portugal shirt sprinted across the pitch and got within metres of being punched in the face by Ronaldo. Luckily, two security guards saved him the effort.But that really was that in terms of action. What followed was a lot of emotion.At one end of the pitch, there was 40-year-old Modric holding back tears. At the other end, Ronaldo was now wearing Diogo Jota’s No 21 jersey, and it was all of us holding back tears. This game was played a day short of the first anniversary of the deaths of Jota and his brother, Andre Silva.Ronaldo holds up a shirt bearing the No 21 of Diogo Jota (Photo: Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images)Speaking to RTP after the game, Ronaldo said: “It’s a special day because, as you know, our Jota is up there illuminating us.“It’s a special moment. We all felt that he is present with us, and it only made sense to win today to honour him in the best way.”As for his own future, the 41-year-old icon was tight-lipped.When he was asked to explain the decision to substitute his captain, Martinez told Brazilian TV that he did it to help the team, as simple as that.“I don’t think there’s a player at the World Cup who could have taken that penalty the way he did in those circumstances,” he said.I am not so sure about that, but it was a very good penalty.“It was amazing,” said Martinez, when asked in his post-match press conference about the atmosphere in the stadium.“It reminds me of the old-fashioned Premier League. Wonderful pitch. It’s a shame there aren’t more games in Toronto.”Croatia’s manager Zlatko Dalic was clearly still fuming about the snick-o-meter call, but acknowledged that we had all witnessed something very special.“There is a sadness but, of course, a wonderful atmosphere,” he said. “A lot of support from our fans. It was truly wonderful football. I would like to keep the feeling that football is such and not become a business.”Me too, Zlatko. So, let us resist these extra advertising breaks, and preserve the long, honourable tradition of games of two halves.Hold on, a game that good needs a postscript. If that was the last time we got to see Modric play, thank you, Luka. It has been a privilege.But, as Martin Baturina and Petar Sucic put it in the mixed zone, he was the best player on the pitch. Maybe it is not over for him just yet.