Cristiano Ronaldo sealed Portugal's place in the FIFA World Cup finals with another sublime hat-trick then declared: "Simply I did my work."
The Portugal captain had given his side a 1-0 first-leg lead in their play-off with Sweden last Friday before taking centre stage yet again in the return game in Solna on Tuesday as he finished off the job and consigned the home team to a 3-2 defeat at the Friends Arena and a 4-2 loss on aggregate.
Ronaldo opened the scoring on the night five minutes into the second half, but the duel between the inspirational Real Madrid forward and Zlatan Ibrahimovic burst into life when the Sweden skipper scored twice in the space of four minutes to level the tie at 2-2 on aggregate.
However, Ronaldo was determined not to be upstaged by the prolific Paris Saint-Germain striker as he scored twice in quick succession with clinical finishes to complete his hat-trick and become his country's joint-leading scorer of all time along with Pauleta on 47 goals.
Portugal can now look forward to playing in a fourth consecutive World Cup finals in Brazil next year, while Sweden miss out for the second successive tournament.
Ronaldo said: "Simply I did my work.
"We're to be congratulated. We did what we aimed to do. We will now go to clubs and think about the World Cup when it comes."
The former Manchester United forward, who has now scored 13 goals in his last six games for club and country, admitted Portugal made hard work of seeing off Sweden.
He added: "We suffered, but that's part of football.
"You never know who's going to win - that's why football is brilliant."
