Cristiano Ronaldo surpassed 100 goals for Portugal last night (Photo by JANERIK HENRIKSSON/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images)
Breaking down Cristiano Ronaldo’s 101 goals for Portugal
Cristiano Ronaldo’s long wait for the elusive 100th international goal is over.
Back in the starting XI after sitting out of the Croatia game at the weekend due to a toe injury, the Juventus superstar Cristiano Ronaldo whipped an incredible free-kick into the far post to close in on triple digits, before executing an audacious lob over Swedish ‘keeper Robin Olsen to extend his tally to 101 goals for the Seleccao.
He’s now just eight behind the world record set by Iran’s Ali Daei in 2006, which the Juventus ace might as well surpass before the end of the year at this rate, given there are plenty more fixtures to come over the next two months.
For now, let’s breakdown Cristiano Ronaldo’s international goals to see how he’s scored them, where he’s scored them, against whom he’s scored them and so on:
#1 Debut international goal
Ronaldo made his Portugal debut way back in 2003 in a friendly against Kazakhstan, aged just 18. He didn’t score that day but opened his account for the Seleccao on a much higher platform – the Euros.
In the following year, when the Iberian nation staged the championship, he scored in the opening game against eventual-winners Greece in stoppage time, making him one of the youngest ever scorer in the nation’s history, though his side lost 2-1.
Favourite opposition
Quite incredibly, Ronaldo has scored against 45 nations in his career, but his favourite ones are Lithuania and last night’s adversary, Sweden, with seven goals against each.
The tally includes three hat-tricks, twice against the former during last year’s Euro qualifiers, and once against the Nordic country during that historic World Cup play-offs fixture in 2013.
Luxembourg, Andorra, Armenia, and Latvia are also some of his favourite punching bags, with each side conceding five times to the Portuguese star.
Favourite venue
Ronaldo has scored the highest number of goals for Portugal at the Estadio Algarve in Faro with 10, four coming in friendly games to Finland (2009), Luxemborg (2011), Panama (2012), and the Netherlands (2013).
On other occasions, he scored once against Armenia in Euro qualifiers (2015), twice against Latvia in a World Cup qualifier (2016), and thrice against Lithuania in another Euro qualifier (2019).
Internationally, his favourite stomping ground is Sweden’s Friends Arena in Solna, where’s scored five times, including twice last night, while Ronaldo also loves to score in Russia apparently, with six of his goals coming in the transcontinental country, including four during the 2018 World Cup.
Hat-tricks
Talking of hat-tricks, well, no one hold a candle to Ronaldo in that regard. Not even on the international stage. He’s netted thrice or more in a match for Portugal on nine occasions, a record he shares only with the late Swedish great Sven Rydell.
He got his first of the lot as recently as 2013, by which time he already had 40 goals for the Seleccao. And that came against Northern Ireland in a World Cup qualifier.
The former Real Madrid star has bagged a couple of ‘super hat-tricks’, or quadruples, too in his career, including twice for his country, which came against Andorra (2016) and Lithuania (2019).
The latter is also the only side against whom he’s scored a hat-trick more than once (2).
Competitive goals
Some people often cynically dismiss Ronaldo’s imperious exploits as merely stat-padding against the smaller and weaker sides, but you might be surprised if you delve a bit deeper.
Of his 101 goals, only 17 have come in friendlies! That’s just 15% of his total strikes – compare that to Messi, who’s struck nearly half of his goals for Argentina in this format.
Ronaldo has been an incredibly clutch player for his country over the years, as emphasized by his total of 31 goals in Euro qualifiers, a record, and another 30 in World Cup qualifiers.
For the record, he’s also the joint-leading scorer in the Euro cup’s history, with nine goals in the tournament proper, coming in four different editions of the competition, also the most.
Set-piece expertise
Cristiano Ronaldo’s pedigree from set-pieces is well documented. He’s scored ten freekicks for the Seleccao, including some peaches against Denmark (2011), Spain (2018), and Sweden (2020).
His ability from 12 yards too, is unparalleled, and he’s struck another 11 goals for his country from the spot, two of which have come in the World Cups, and just once in an international friendly.
