Cristiano Ronaldo Nears 100 International Goals For Portugal

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 99th international goal as reigning European champions Portugal qualified for the 2020 European Championship with a 2-0 win away to Luxembourg.

Ronaldo who recently reached 700 career goals for both club and country will however have to wait a little longer for his century of goals for Portugal.

His scrambled strike against Luxembourg took Ronaldo to just 10 goals behind former Iran striker Ali Daei.

Iranian striker Ali Daei holds the world record with 109 international goals scored in 149 appearances between 1993 and 2006.

On Thursday, Ronaldo scored a hat trick to lead a 6-0 rout of Lithuania, but was largely kept in check by Luxembourg.

Ronaldo played the whole match, but he was largely quiet and ineffective.

Portugal qualified automatically along with Group B winner Ukraine, which was already through and twice rallied to draw 2-2 at Serbia.

“All records must be broken and I will beat that record,” said Ronaldo.

By Gerald Dandah