Crystal Palace were linked with Goncalo Ramos during the summer and Patrick Vieira will be wishing he'd arrived at Selhurst Park after his phenomenal World Cup performance this week.

According to 90min, Palace were one of several Premier League sides to register an interest in the Benfica striker but he would remain with the Portuguese giants and has been hugely impressive ever since.

After hitting nine goals in just 11 Portuguese Liga appearances this term, he earned a call-up to Fernando Santos' squad for the World Cup in Qatar, although it was expected that he would play second fiddle to Cristiano Ronaldo and Joao Felix in their attack.

However, he was handed a surprise start in their round-of-16 fixture against Switzerland on Tuesday and took his opportunity with serious aplomb, notching an incredible hat-trick in a 6-1 thrashing.

The 21-year-old smashed in the opener before finding the net with two deft finishes to score the first hat-trick of the World Cup and set up a quarter-final tie against Morocco on Saturday.

That trio of goals saw him emulate a certain Pele with the attacker becoming the second youngest player to score a World Cup knock-out hat-trick behind the great Brazilian.

Ramos also popped up with another two shots on target, an assist and two key passes, which suggests that he is far more than a goal scorer, with Sofascore awarding him a phenomenal 9.8/10 rating for his performance.

For comparison, Wilfried Zaha leads the way for shots on target per game this season with just 2.7, while Eberechi Eze has averaged 1.7 key passes per game, which emphasises just how good of an all-round attacking display it was from Ramos in Qatar.

While Odsonne Edouard has looked promising on occasion this season, he has managed just three Premier League goals so far this term, while Jean-Philippe Mateta has only one goal to his name, which suggests that Vieira is lacking a clinical striker in his side.

Considering Ramos' phenomenal start to the 2022/23 campaign with Benfica, it was perhaps always unlikely that Palace would be able to tempt him to Selhurst Park in January, but now that he has announced himself on the world stage, it seems almost impossible.

In the words of Gary Lineker, it was a truly "remarkable" display from the Benfica wonderkid, so Vieira will be gutted that the Eagles weren't able to bring Ramos to the Premier League during the summer, as he could have taken the pressure off Zaha as the main source of goals at Selhurst Park.