This was supposed to be a night of blood and belligerence. Luis Suarez against Pepe. Cristiano Ronaldo contra Diego Godin. ‘Shithousery’, chicanery and fingers going where fingers do not usually go. Every VAR review would be a video nasty. ‘The Battle of the Black Sea’, some preemptively called it. Tell the medical staff to bring their body bags, they said. Only one of these sides would leave Sochi alive.

This was no dirty war, though. Instead, Uruguay progressed to the World Cup quarter-finals by carrying out a clean, thorough and methodical assassination of a frenzied, desperate Portugal. Oscar Tabarez, Uruguay’s long-serving head coach, has spent both his spells in charge of La Celeste attempting to move them away from the reputation for violent play earned in the 1970s and 1980s. On this evidence alone, he is succeeding.

Two clinical Edinson Cavani goals, one early on in proceedings, the other not long after Pepe’s equaliser, put a firm but fair La Celeste in the quarter-finals against France. Tabarez’s side did not rely on the dark arts to get them there, but their imposing, authoritative defence. Portugal dominated the play for long spells - particularly in the second half - and will regret Bernardo Silva’s miss a minute on from Uruguay’s second, when the goalmouth was open and begging.

Uruguay, however, remained confident that their backline - centred around Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez, the Atletico Madrid partnership and perhaps this World Cup’s best defensive pairing - would be enough to see them through. Though they came under severe scrutiny, and conceded their first goal of this tournament, they passed their test.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, was a picture of seething frustration from Cavani’s opener onwards. In his fifth World Cup knockout game, he could not find his first World Cup knockout goal. His desires on the Golden Boot and perhaps the Balon d’Or are gone. He leaves this tournament on the same day as Lionel Messi.

Tabarez, though, knows too well functionality alone is rarely enough to succeed at this level. The quiet and dignified head coach, in charge for more than a decade now, has long relied upon the genius of Suarez and Cavani to supplement his rearguard’s sturdiness. The pair delivered as early as the seventh minute, with an extraordinary one-two so ambitious it caught Portugal cold.

Cavani, out on the right and only just entering opposition territory, first switched play to Suarez on the opposite flank. By the time his strike partner had trapped the ball, stepped inside and sought to cross, Cavani was already in the penalty area and peeling off Raphael Guerreiro in space at the far post.

In two beautiful, raking passes, Uruguay had not only cut their opponents open but almost covered the width of the pitch twice. The third and final touch was the only imperfect one. Cavani converted past Rui Patricio emphatically but also slightly awkwardly, diverting Suarez’s cross with his nose rather than his forehead.

Mere minutes after the opener, Ronaldo had abandoned the cute shimmies and neat interplay he had shown in the opening stages and was instead going it alone, cutting inside from the left with intent, searching for openings, finding none. A free-kick on the half-hour mark, at the same stadium as his phenomenal equaliser against Spain a fortnight ago, did not whip around the wall and nestle in the top corner this time, and instead had all the sting taken off it by a deflection.

Uruguay were suffocating their opponents, restricting them to hopeful, long-range attempts, but after spending so long seeming impenetrable, their defence eventually came under a sustained period of examination for the first time in this tournament. Not long after at the start of the second half, they conceded their first goal.

Godin, imperious up to this point and so often aware of the immediate threats around him, was caught out while transfixed on the danger posed by Ronaldo on a corner. As the ball whipped over him and Ronaldo, the unmarked Pepe headed the equaliser. It was a goal against the run of play, or at least one that - for all Portugal’s endeavour - appeared unlikely.

Uruguay, though, were unlikely to give up an opportunity so easily again. Their opponents, meanwhile, remain defensively suspect - with their ageing pair of centre-halves - and so it was La Celeste who quickly composed themselves and re-established their lead with their first attack of the second half. It was a simple goal - born of winning both an aerial duel and a second ball - but it required a sublime finish from Cavani, who arced his attempt around Patricio’s outstretched palm and in.

Portugal, undeterred, pressed again and picked up where they left off in dominating possession. One spill by Fernando Muslera should have been punished, and the Uruguay goalkeeper panicked when Bernardo Silva collected the loose ball on the edge of the area with a largely unguarded goal to aim at. And yet, without time to set himself, Bernardo shot over.

If the pressure on Uruguay’s backline was heavy at the start of the second half, it was immense now. Portugal, without creating anything clear-cut, nonetheless kept coming, though their fate appeared sealed when Ronaldo received a caution in stoppage time.

The man Diego Forlan described as “50 per cent” of this Portuguese side was now suspended for any prospective quarter-final and their chances of progression suddenly fell to zero.

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