Tue 27th Jun 2006

Ronaldo became the leading scorer in World Cup finals history after his early strike against Ghana helped his country to a 3-0 victory.

Adriano and Ze Roberto were also on target against the 10-man Africans, who fought to the end in Dortmund.

The world champions were ahead with five minutes on the clock, when Kaka's fine throughball helped Ronaldo spring the offside trap before coolly rounding keeper Richard Kingson and slotting home his 15th goal in World Cup finals - which saw him overtake Gerd Muller's haul of 14.

Ghana should have been 2-0 down on 13 minutes as this time Adriano broke clear - but instead of squaring to Ronaldo for a simple tap-in, he tried to round Kingson but lost possession and got booked for diving in a vain bid to win a penalty and spare his blushes.

The Africans slowly began to settle, though, and visibly grew in confidence when Haminu Draman's 30-yard piledriver was tipped over the crossbar by Dida on 18 minutes.

Matthew Amoah dragged a left-footed shot narrowly wide before firing a good chance straight at Dida as Ghana more than held their own.

And after Ronaldinho went close with an angled drive and free-kick, Ghana missed two clear-cut chances just before the break when Asamoah Gyan steered a shot over the bar and John Mensah powered a header straight at Dida from Sulley Muntari's corner.

Brazil produced the ultimate sucker in first-half stoppage time, however, when Adriano turned home Cafu's cross from close range, despite twice being offside during the build-up.

In the second half, Kingson saved Roberto Carlos' toe-poke before Ghana started to pile men forward, creating two great chances for Gyan who was denied on both occasions by fine saves from Dida.

Gyan's game then took a turn for the worse, though, as he received a second yellow card for diving on 81 minutes and watched Ze Roberto put the icing on a professional, if uninspiring, display from Brazil with a third goal six minutes from time.

Ghana keeper Kingson pulled off three tremendous late saves from Ronaldo, Cafu and Ricardinho to keep the score respectable - and Brazil now face either Spain or France in the quarter-finals on Saturday.