It was another record-breaking night for Cristiano Ronaldo, despite Robbie Keane’s best efforts to steer him away. The Juventus forward netted four goals as Portugal beat Lithuania to take his overall tally to 25 in European qualifying – two more than the previous record set by former Republic of Ireland striker Keane. Before the match, Keane asked Ronaldo to “leave this one” after pointing out the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was two goals away from his record. “I think you have enough records, Cristiano!” Keane joked on Instagram. But after scoring against his 150th different team for club and country, there was no stopping Ronaldo netting his eighth international hat-trick and stealing the limelight. Ronaldo has now scored 93 international goals, 16 behind Iran legend Ali Daei’s world record in men’s football and is also the first European to score 90 goals for his country. The 34-year-old is the leading scorer in European Championships. He has netted 34 goals in total – including nine in final tournaments, which is also a joint-record with Frenchman Michel Platini. Those goals came in four successive tournaments – 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 – with one in the semi-final victory over Wales during Portugal’s title-winning campaign three years ago. No other European has scored more goals in competitive international fixtures, with Ronaldo netting 72, including the first goal and a hat-trick in the Nations League Finals when he put three past Switzerland in the last four in June. And his tally of 30 goals in European World Cup qualifying is another record. Ronaldo has netted against an impressive 150 different teams while playing for clubs and country. Just under a third of those have been against other nations (40), while just 17 have been in friendly matches. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has a knack for leaving it late too, with 26 of his 93 international goals coming in the last 15 minutes. He has scored more goals with his head (25) than with his left foot (22) and in the 61 games he has scored in, Portugal have gone on to lose just five of them, winning 51. Interestingly – outside of penalty shootouts – Ronaldo has never scored against European giants France, Germany, Italy or England. He has scored five goals against Andorra, Armenia, Latvia and Sweden – more than any other nation.

Source: punch

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