The tale of the trivela

No one does it quite like Roberto Quaresma.

The mercurial Portugal forward has had to wait until the age of 34 to play at his first World Cup and it was fitting that, when he scored his first goal on the sport's biggest stage against Iran on Monday, it was with his signature skill, the "trivela".

A Portuguese word which is slowly creeping into other languages, the "trivela" is the difficult art of bending the ball with the outside of the foot and Quaresma is arguably its greatest current exponent.

Just before halftime, Quaresma collected the ball near the touchline, played a one-two, and curled a shot passed goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand. The 1-1 draw helped Portugal into the last 16 where they will face Uruguay.

The right-footed Quaresma has scored at least a dozen similar goals during his career and also uses the trivela for passing and crossing.

Some may argue it helps him hide a weakness with his left foot but Quaresma says he uses it because it is much more difficult for defenders to deal with.

"The best thing about passing the ball this way is that the defender does not know which way the ball is going... it's my favourite skill in the game," he once said in a UEFA training video.

"The key thing to remember is to slice your foot through and under the outside of the ball... so connecting with the bottom left-hand corner with your right foot... this will give it the right spin."

Raised at the Sporting youth academy at the same time as Cristiano Ronaldo, many felt at the time that Quaresma was the more likely of the pair to set the football world alight.

An early move to Barcelona did not pan out, neither did a stint at Inter Milan and troubles continued in Chelsea. Amid all these problems, he was not considered for the 2010 World Cup but made the provisional 30-man squad for 2014 only to be axed.

"I don't know how many I have scored - you'll have to look on Youtube - but I hope I can score more," he said after Monday's game. "I always believe I can do something different."