Sunday, September 13, 2020
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Cristiano Ronaldo creates history, scores record 100th international goal
A stunning double on the part of Cristiano Ronaldo this evening saw the Juventus superstar reach a remarkable international goalscoring milestone, as he continues to close on the all-time record.
Sweden downed
Ronaldo’s Portugal returned to Nations League action a short time ago, in a meeting with Sweden.
Fernando Santos’ men got their Group campaign off to the perfect start over the weekend, with a 4-1 downing of Croatia.
Making their victory even more impressive, meanwhile, was the fact that it came with captain and leader Ronaldo having missed out through injury.
The 35-year-old returned to action this evening, though, and to say that he made his impact felt would be putting it lightly.
Ronaldo notched both of his side’s goals versus Sweden, as Portugal ran out 2-0 winners.
The first came courtesy of a wonderful free-kick:
Cristiano climbing
As outlined above, though, Ronaldo’s brace did not just prove significant on a collective level for Portugal, but also on an individual level for the attacker himself.
In netting his first versus Sweden, Ronaldo took his international goalscoring tally to 100, making the former Real Madrid man the first European player to ever reach the century mark for his country:
VIDEO : Ronaldo scores double against Sweden
PORTUGAL VS SWEDEN - UEFA NATION LEAGUE
GOAL : Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice against 10-man Sweden on Tuesday to take him to 101 international goals for Portugal on Tuesday. The mythical 100-mark was broken on the stroke of half-time of a UEFA Nations League match against Sweden. The 35-year-old Juventus attacker curled in a free-kick from 25 yards over the wall and into the far left corner beyond Sweden's stranded goalkeeper Robin Olsen for a memorable milestone in his trophy-laden career. The bonus second goal, and his 101st, came in the 72nd minute, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid player cutting back inside the Swedish defence and producing a deft finish into the far corner from 20 yards.
VIDEO : Cristiano Ronaldo vs Sweden!
Sunday, September 6, 2020
Ronaldo told to wear face mask during Portugal 4-1 Croatia
Cristiano Ronaldo’s wait for his 100th international goal continues after he was ruled out of Portugal’s UEFA Nations League clash against Croatia on Saturday evening.
The Portuguese superstar scored his 99th international goal against Luxembourg back in November but hasn’t had many opportunities to add to his tally since.He was ruled out of the Croatia game under very bizarre circumstances.
According to Football Italia, Ronaldo was not included in Portugal’s squad because of a bee sting. Yes, you did right that right: a bee sting.The 35-year-old’s right foot has reportedly become infected due to the sting and there’s a chance he could also miss Portugal’s fixture against Sweden on Tuesday.
"I am very doubtful that he will be 100 per cent OK," Portugal head coach Fernando Santos said during his press conference, per The Sun.
"He had been training well, then suddenly on Wednesday one of his toes was red, as if he’d been stung by a bee.
"Now we have to wait. With an infection, you don’t know how long the recovery is going to take."
Despite his infected foot, Ronaldo was still in attendance at the Estádio Do Dragão in Porto for Portugal’s clash against 2018 World Cup finalists Croatia.
Cristiano was asked to wear a mask in the stands as he wasn't wearing one.
— The CR7 Timeline. (@TimelineCR7) September 5, 2020
😂pic.twitter.com/TLSUIFp7It
And his teammates produced an excellent team performance in his absence, registering a 4-1 victory over their opponents thanks to goals from Joao Cancelo, Diogo Jota, Joao Felix and Andre Silva. At one point, the camera cut to Ronaldo being asked by a member of staff inside the stadium to wear a face mask. Those around him in the stands were masked up, but Ronaldo had clearly forgotten to put his on.
Friday, September 4, 2020
Cristiano Ronaldo is likely to miss UEFA Nation qualification game against Croatia due to infection in right foot
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After being confined to gym work on Wednesday, Ronaldo faces a battle to prove he has shaken off the infection and will now be evaluated on a day-to-day basis by medical staff.
The 35-year-old will certainly be fit in time to begin the new Serie A campaign under Andrea Pirlo on September 20, however.Juventus will begin their title defence, and their new era, against Sampdoria. Due to the injury not affecting Ronaldo's muscles or bones, it is understood that Juventus are not overtly worried by their talisman's condition.The club will contact Portugal to be kept updated on his progress. A further source of frustration for Ronaldo will be his potential failure to score his 100th international goal in either of the two games. His 99th strike came against Luxembourg in November, and the superstar's wait may now stretch even further. Portugal play Croatia on Saturday and will then travel to Sweden on Tuesday.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Cristiano Ronaldo's 5 Greatest Achievements!!!
5 Greatest career achievements of Cristiano Ronaldo
There are only a select few things that Cristiano Ronaldo has failed to achieve in his illustrious career. The iconic Portuguese went from being a wiry, fleet-footed teenager to the best player in the world, and now, arguably one of the best players in the history of the beautiful game.
Ronaldo has displayed a unique ability to feed on criticism and fuel his performances with it. Even at the age of 35, after a lacklustre start to the league season with five goals in ten games, he made his critics think again with a blitz of goals and stunning performances over the next 23 league games he played in.
The 35-year-old scored a whopping 26 goals in those 23 games, firing Juventus to their ninth consecutive title.
#5 Highest scorer in UCL history
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Out of the catalogue of records that Ronaldo has shattered, this is, perhaps, the most impressive one. While many greats of the game have broken records for their clubs and domestic leagues, Ronaldo took it a few steps forward by doing so on the biggest stage that club football has to offer.
The 35-year-old is the leading goalscorer in the history of the UEFA Champions League, and became the first of only two players to surpass 100 UCL goals. The second was his eternal rival Lionel Messi, who has 114 to his name. Ronaldo has a total of 129 goals in Europe, 128 of which came in the premier competition itself and the other in the qualifying rounds.
The former Manchester United forward also holds the distinction of being the player with the most number of goals in a single UCL campaign when he scored 17 in 2014. Unsurprisngly, the next two highest individual tallies in a season also belong to the Portugal legend.
The Champions League really is Cristiano's favourite competition.
#4 Only player to score 15+ goals every year since 2006 in Europe's top-five leagues
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The level of competition in the top five leagues of Europe — Premier League, LaLiga Santander, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1 — is remarkably higher than that in the remaining top-flights. Ronaldo has appeared in three of these five leagues and has scored a staggering number of goals in each and every one of them.
The former Real Madrid legend has a total of 429 league goals since 2006/07, scoring a minimum of 15 goals in every campaign since then — a feat that no other player has managed in the top five leagues.
The Portuguese has been the epitome of consistency and has managed to score goals at an absurd rate. This achievement only goes on to highlight his goalscoring prowess and natural ability that has allowed him to find the back of the net at will, and for such an extended period.
The most fascinating part of this is the variation of goals he's scored. Ronaldo has a lengthy list of goals ranging from three-yeards out to thirty. Be it a banging long-range strike or a clever finish in the box, Ronaldo has done it all.
#3 Winning second-most Ballons d'Or in history
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Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are regarded as the poster boys of a generation of football. Naturally, their rivalry has been one of the themes of the sport for well over a decade now, a rivalry considered one of the greatest in sport, let alone football. |
Their battle for more Ballons d'Or has been well-documented and is enthralling, to say the least. While Ronaldo opened the metaphorical scoring between the two greats, Messi took control of the podium and was crowned as the best in the world for four successive seasons between 2009 and 2012. While Ronaldo recovered miraculously and saw their tally level with five apiece, their duopoly was broken by Luka Modric in the year that Croatia reached the FIFA World Cup final.
Lionel Messi made history after winning his sixth in 2019, leaving Ronaldo in second place as the player with the second-most number of Ballons d'Or. The Portuguese icon would hope to win another before he retires.
Nonetheless, five in itself is a breathtaking achievement, given that it is at least two more than anyone else in history not named Lionel Messi.
#2 Winning league titles and UCLs with multiple clubs
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Winning a UEFA Champions League title and a league title is an honour for some players, while for those like Cristiano Ronaldo, it has come to become the norm, the expectation. The Juventus striker fired his side to their ninth successive Scudetto, his second in as many years in Turin.
This made him the only player to win a minimum of two league titles in each of the Serie A, LaLiga Santander and Premier League. Ronaldo's Juventus teammate Danilo also achieved a similar record with the recent title win. However, he has only one apiece of Serie A and LaLiga titles, while Ronaldo has a minimum of two. Ronaldo won three Premier League titles on the spin under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, and two at Real Madrid.
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He also won the UCL with two clubs — the Red Devils and Los Blancos — and is hopeful of winning it with a third separate club at Juventus. Should he do so, he will be only the second player after Clarence Seedorf to win it with three clubs. The Portuguese won four of them with Real Madrid, with three of them being a part of Zinedine Zidane's historic 'three-peat' between 2015 and 2018.
Before his move to the Spanish capital, the former Sporting CP teenager fired Manchester United to European glory in 2008 and even scored in the final against Chelsea. Ronaldo is also the only player to score in two finals and win them.
#1 International glory with Portugal
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| Ronaldo celebrating with the trophy after guiding Portugal to their first-ever international trophy |
Perhaps the only notable form of criticism faced by both Ronaldo and his counterpart Messi is their lack of international glory with Portugal and Argentina respectively. The latter came painfully close to sealing his status as the undisputed greatest player of all time with a FIFA World Cup final appearance in 2014, but ended up on the losing side as Germany were crowned champions of the world.
Two years later, Ronaldo helped Portugal achieve something that they never had in their history despite possessing a glorious list of footballers among their ranks. He helped the Selecao to their first-ever international trophy as Fernando Santos' men won the UEFA European Championship in 2016 after beating France in their backyard. The striker ended the tournament as the joint-second highest scorer with three goals, behind Player of the Tournament Antoine Griezmann.
Three years after their legendary Euro 2016 win, Ronaldo, who sat out the preliminary fixtures in Portugal's League of Nations campaign, entered the fray in the semi-final. He announced his arrival with a breathtaking hat-trick in the penultimate game against Switzerland, including two late goals to seal their spot in the final. Santos' men eventually prevailed victorious in the final, making it the second international trophy Portugal won in the CR7 era.
Regardless of his endless list of achievements in club football, Ronaldo will also be remembered as the player who finally helped end Portugal's wait for a taste of international glory.
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
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