Cristiano Ronaldo ran onto the field in the Portugal national team jersey for the first time since another disappointing, and for him possibly the last, participation in the World Cup, became the player with the most games in the history of the national football (197) and let all his anger out on the powerless semi-professionals from Liechtenstein.From the penalty spot, and then from a free kick, he scored the 119th and 120th goal for the Navigators. For some time, more precisely since the middle of 2021, Cristiano has been the best scorer on the planet in the national teams’ framework, ever since he broke the long untouched record of the Iranian Ali Daei (109 goals).And realistically, football does not remember a deadlier goal machine than Ronaldo – both on the club and national team stage.The Portuguese ace is the world record holder with 830 goals, whether Lionel Messi, who is 30 goals behind, or the latter generation and their protectors Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland will ever catch up to CR7, is a big question mark.##NAJAVA_MECA_7126019##Nevertheless, the hunger with which throughout his career, and even today, as he treads the 39th year of his life, he chased after goals, wanted to appropriate other people’s goals, because of which he was furious when his teammates, instead of serving him on a platter, chose to shake the net themselves – he often crossed the boundaries of good taste.Maybe because of that insatiability and goal-scoring greed, he is the supreme god on Olympus of the deadliest football scorers, but the aura of divinity fades a bit every time he does his iconic ‘SIU’ celebration when he scores multiple goals against the helpless plebeians, such as the Lichtenstein national team and their ilk.There are different ways to crown another addition to your total goalscoring balance. That iconic silencing of Camp Nou was an example of true footballing swagger – penalty and a free kick that wouldn’t have gone through the hands of a better goalkeeper from top five leagues, are still far from a reason to scream. And it was that exalted celebration, that raising of the hand in the desire to steal the first goal from teammate João Cancelo, that led us to dig a little deeper into the national team goals of the prolific scorer from Madeira.Of the current 120 goals, there are many more marginal ones, the ones that shook the nets of the lowest football class. As many as 49 goals, which is a little more than 40 percent of the total number, Ronaldo scored against 15 rivals, mostly made up of football anonyms, occasionally people who do not earn a living from playing professional football.⚽️ 2004⚽️ 2005⚽️ 2006⚽️ 2007⚽️ 2008⚽️ 2009⚽️ 2010⚽️ 2011⚽️ 2012⚽️ 2013⚽️ 2014⚽️ 2015⚽️ 2016⚽️ 2017⚽️ 2018⚽️ 2019⚽️ 2020⚽️ 2021⚽️ 2022⚽️ 2023Cristiano Ronaldo has scored a goal for Portugal every single year for the past 20 YEARS 🤯🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/eJebtjOyKH— SPORTbible (@sportbible) March 23, 2023 Cristiano netted the most in the qualifiers for the world championships (47 games/36 goals) and European championships (36 games/33 goals), which is logical given that quantitatively he made the largest number of appearances there, and that the fewest appeared in front of rivals ‘literate’ in a footballing sense.Thus, the legendary Portuguese scored nine times against Luxembourg, sent balls into the Lithuanian net on seven occasions, and sent undefended shots into Andorra’s goal one less time. Followed by Latvia, where he scored five goals, then Estonia and the Faroe Islands with four each, he delivered two each to Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and last night to Liechtenstein. One ball found its way into the net of Panama, New Zealand, Qatar and North Korea.GOALS AGAINST LOWER CLASS OPPONENTS – 31 games, 49 goals (10 from penalties)Luxembourg 9Latvia 5Estonia 4Lithuania 7Saudi Arabia 2Azerbaijan 2Kazakhstan 2Andorra 6Qatar 1North Korea 1Cyprus 2Panama 1Faroe Islands 4New Zealand 1Liechtenstein 2And when we switch from qualifiers, The Nations League and friendlies to the big stage, Ronaldo’s goal-scoring power declines. To be fair, we are talking exclusively about national team football and leaving aside the absolute dominance he demonstrated in Europe playing for Manchester United and Real Madrid.Ronaldo played in five world and European championships, collected a total of 47 games and scored 22 goals. However, he only hit the net three times outside the group stage at major competitions, i.e. he never scored in the knockout stage of the World Cup in his career.He appeared as a teenager in Portugal’s jersey at Euro 2004, scored a goal against the eventual champions Greece in the group stage, and with a goal against the Netherlands (2-1) helped them reach the final. But the Navigators failed to crush the Greeks twice in the same contest.##NAJAVA_MECA_7126014##Euro 2004 – six games, two goals (group: Greece (1), Russia, Spain, knockout: England, Netherlands (1), Greece)WC 2006 – seven games, one goal (group: Angola, Iran (1), Mexico, knockout: Netherlands, England, France, Germany)Euro 2008 – three games, one goal (group: Turks, Czech Republic (1), knockout: Germany)WC 2010 – four games, one goal (group: O. Ivory Coast, North Korea (1), Brazil, knockout: Spain), goal only for North KoreaEuro 2012 – five games, three goals (group: Germany, Denmark, Netherlands (2), knockout: Czech Republic (1), Spain)WC 2014 – three games, one goal (group: Germany, USA, Ghana (1))Euro 2016 – seven games, three goals (group: Iceland, Austria, Hungary (2), knockout: Croatia, Poland, Wales (1))WC 2018 – four games, four goals (group: Spain (3), Marcoco (1), Iran, knockout: Uruguay)Euro 2020 – four games, five goals (Hungary (2), Germany (1), France (2), knockout: Belgium)WC 2022 – five games, one goal (group: Ghana (1), Uruguay, South Korea, knockout: Switzerland Morocco)🚨Cristiano Ronaldo has now scored 100 GOALS in competitive matches for Portugal. 🇵🇹🤯 pic.twitter.com/EZcluJR7Tx— The CR7 Timeline. (@TimelineCR7) March 23, 2023 Ronaldo did become European champion with Portugal in 2016, and at that time it was believed that this title could be enough for him in the race with Lionel Messi. However, it was a long time ago, and in the meantime, Messi pushed the Argentines first to a Copa America glory, and then to the world throne. Let’s not forget that at Euro 2016, Ronaldo scored goals in only two out of seven games – in the group stage against Hungary, which Portugal passed with three draws, and then in the semi-final against Wales. Admittedly, all three goals were crucial, since both times he brought the Portuguese back against the Hungarians to a scoreless tie without which there would not even be a knockout stage, as well as beating Wales and taking the Navigators to the final. There he experienced bad luck, had to leave the game after 25 minutes and thus lost the chance to eventually become a hero of the nation, but Eder compensated him with the ‘arrow’ that pierced the French in the second overtime and brought Portugal to the throne.All these lines were not created in order to demean the footballing achievement of one of the greatest of all time. Anyone who tried it would come off as crazy, ridiculous, unprofessional or incompetent. The bottom line is that every time before he jumps, after a goal, he makes a turn and yells “SIUUUU”, he should remember that he was not up to the task many times when the whole of Portugal was looking at him. And Liechtenstein, Andorra, Estonia and the like, the Portuguese could destroy even without him.
