SOLNA, Sweden (AFP) — Cristiano Ronaldo scored a brilliant hat-trick as Portugal survived a second-half scare to qualify for their fourth straight World Cup final with a 3-2 play-off second leg win against Sweden yesterday to qualify 4-2 on aggregate.

The Real Madrid superstar scored all four of his side’s goals, including the first-leg winner as he overcame an equally brilliant display from Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a classic encounter at Solna.

Ibrahimovic scored both goals for Sweden in vain as the match featured five goals in 29 minutes of second-half madness.

Ronaldo also becomes Portugal’s all-time leading scorer as he took his tally to 50, and three ahead of retired forward Pedro Pauleta.

With Portugal leading 1-0 after the first-leg and the match scoreless at half-time, Ronaldo turned the game on its head five minutes after the restart when he latched onto a glorious through ball from Joao Moutinho and guided a left-foot shot past the despairing Andreas Isaksson.

The counter-attack that began inside the Portuguese penalty area, took just two touches to send the former Sporting Lisbon and Manchester United striker free on a break that went the length of the pitch.

Sweden were left facing the daunting prospect of scoring three times in 40 minutes and roused the crowd into a frenzy when Ibrahimovic headed home Kim Kallstrom’s corner with 22 minutes remaining.

The packed crowd at the Friends Arena were given further hope four minutes later when English referee Howard Webb correctly awarded a free kick to Sweden just outside the area which Ibrahimovic drilled low past Rui Patricio.

With a wave of yellow shirts bombarding the Portuguese defence, Ronaldo again came to the rescue with two goals in two minutes, both of them clinical finishes after breaking behind the defence.

Hugo Almeida set up Portugal’s third goal which took the sting out of the crowd before another perfect pass from Moutinho enabled Ronaldo to round Isaksson before smashing the ball in off the underside of the bar.

Portugal had the better of the first-half chances with Ronaldo twice blasting over from inside the box and Bruno Alves seeing his glancing header desperately pushed away by Isaksson.

However, Sweden kept at the task at hand with Ibrahimovic turning a close-range shot over the bar and Kallstrom’s rasping long-range shot well collected by Rui Patricio.

The stage was then set for a second-half of thrilling action and Ronaldo’s battle with Ibrahmivic which was finally won by the Portuguese.

Meanwhile in Paris, France put up a superb performance to bounce back from a 2-0 play-off first-leg defeat to beat Ukraine 3-0 in the second leg to book their ticket to Brazil 3-2 on aggregate.

The goals came from Mamadou Sakho, Karim Benzema and an Oleg Gusev own goal.

France were up against it at the Stade de France as no team before them had ever overcome a 2-0 first leg loss to qualify for the World Cup.

Greece sealed their place at next year’s World Cup after a 1-1 draw against Romania in Bucharest in the second leg of their play-off, advancing 4-2 on aggregate.

Kostas Mitroglou, who scored twice in a 3-1 victory last Friday in Piraeus, gave Greece the lead in the 23rd minute, beating Romania’s offside trap to control a cross from Giorgos Karagounis and steer the ball past goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu.

Romania came back into the game in the 55th when a botched Greece clearance led to an own goal by Vassilis Torosidis.

But the Greeks held on for the draw and a second straight qualification to the World Cup.

Moments after the final whistle at Bucharest’s National Arena, Greece players lifted coach Fernando Santos and heaved him into the area to cheers from 2,000 travelling fans.