Cristiano Ronaldo became just the fourth European footballer to score 70 goals for his country when he landed a brace for Portugal during their 3-0 win over Hungary on Saturday night. He has scored nine goals in three games having scored seven in three against Andorra, Faroe Islands and Latvia.
The others to go before him were former Hungary and Spain striker Ferenç Puskas who scored 84 goals in 89 appearances. Sandor Kocsis scored 75 goals in 68 appearances for Hungary including 11 goals at the 1954 World Cup. Another, more modern player also joins Ronaldo in the 70 goal club in Miroslav Klose with 71 goals in 137 appearances.
Other players that came close but could not quite break that 70 goal threshold were Ireland’s Robbie Keane on 68, Spain’s David Villa with 59 and Zlatan Ibrahimovic on 57, who have all since retired from international football.
Meanwhile, the Real Madrid superstar claims his personal accomplishments don’t matter in the face of helping his country qualifying for the World Cup.
Ronaldo’s brace takes his tally to nine through five games of the qualifying campaign.
But the Real Madrid star said he’s only focused on playing in Russia in 2018.
“I know how many goals I have but that’s not the most important thing,” he told RTP. “What matters is that we won and we’re in the fight to go to the World Cup.
“We started out timid. We were slow to react to their tactics, but everything changed with the first goal. The team played better, more confidently, and the goals came naturally.
“The team is good. We have a lot of young players.”
Andre Silva opened the scoring on 32 minutes. Ronaldo’s run through the middle found Raphael Guerreiro on the left of the box, whose cross found an unmarked Silva at the goal mouth to tap in.
Ronaldo then collected his first of the night four minutes later. The Real Madrid star pounced onto a back-heeled pass from Silva outside of the box and lashed an unstoppable left-footed shot past Hungary goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi from 20 yards out.
And he completed his brace five minutes after the hour mark, expertly curling a free kick around Gulacsi before skipping inside the far post from a difficult angle on the left.
The victory gives the Euro 2016 champions 12 points from five matches, three behind first-placed Switzerland, who earned a 1-0 win at home over Latvia.