Cristiano Ronaldo races to 41 European Championship qualifying goals: Stats
What's the story
Portugal defeated Liechtenstein 2-0 in the 2024 Euro Qualifiers on Thursday at the Rheinpark Stadion.
Cristiano Ronaldo increased his international goals tally by scoring the first goal while Joao Cancelo netted the second for Roberto Martinez's men.
Portugal have now won all of their nine Euro qualifiers while no other team has won these many games in the qualifying round this time.
Here's more.
Goals
Ronaldo races to 128 international goals
After two back-to-back braces against Slovakia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ronaldo scored a solitary goal against Liechtenstein to take his tally to 128 goals.
He has played the most number of international matches (204) to score the highest goals.
Ali Daei is in the second spot with 109 goals. Lionel Messi (106), Sunil Chhetri (93), and Malaysia's Mokhtar Dahari (89) complete the top five.
Record
Most goals in European Championship Qualifiers
Ronaldo has netted the maximum number of goals in the European Championship Qualifiers.
His goal against Liechtenstein was his 41st goal in the competition. Only eight of his goals are from the spot in 43 European Championship qualifier matches.
Ireland forward Robbie Keane is in the second spot with 23 goals from 44 qualifiers. While England's Harry Kane is in third with 22 goals.
Euro Qualifiers
Joint-highest goals in the 2024 Euro Qualifiers
With this goal, Ronaldo is tied at the top of the goals leaderboard for the 2024 European Championship qualifiers with 10 goals from eight matches.
Belgium marksman Romelu Lukaku also owns 10 goals in the competition.
Meanwhile, Denmark striker Rasmus Hojlund, England's Kane and Scotland midfielder Scott McTominay have slammed home seven goals each and are in second position.
2023
Joint-highest goals in 2023!
Ronaldo has netted 46 goals for club and country since the start of the calendar year 2023.
Manchester City's Erling Haaland has also caught up with him with 46 goals this year. The two forwards are the joint-highest goal-scorer of 2023.
Paris Saint Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe has 42 goals for club and country this year.
Ronaldo has scored 10 goals for Portugal.
Information
Ronaldo scripted this unique feat
With this goal, he completed 10-plus goals for Portugal for the sixth time in a calendar year. It happened in 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023. He scored 14 goals in 2019, the most in a year for Ronaldo representing Portugal.
Ronaldo
Decoding Ronaldo's goals for Portugal
In 52 friendly matches, Ronaldo has smashed 20 goals. He has 41 goals in 43 European Qualifiers.
He has 14 goals in 25 European Championship matches. Ronaldo also has seven goals at the Nations League and two at the FIFA Confederations Cup.
At the World Cup Qualifiers, Ronaldo has 36 goals in 47 games. In 22 FIFA World Cup games, Ronaldo has 8 goals.
Portugal
Portugal remain unscathed in the 2024 Euro Qualifiers
Portugal and France are the only team with a 100% record in the 2024 qualifying campaign.
However, only Portugal have won as many as nine matches while scoring 34 goals, the highest in the competition.
Portugal also conceded only twice and owns a goal difference of 32. Only France have conceded once in this edition of the qualifiers but they have played six games.
Summary
Portugal took time to break the deadlock against Liechtenstein
Portugal had a scrappy start as they failed to break the deadlock despite Martinez not resting his starters.
However early in the second half, Diogo Jota came up with a brilliant pass that found Ronaldo, who dodged two defenders with a cut-in before slamming it home with his left foot.
Later, Cancelo extended the lead capitalizing on a blunder made by the opposition goalkeeper.