In the pantheon of remarkable records that the Portuguese superstar has amassed in his career, Cristiano Ronaldo again matched Ali Daei’s legendary tally, becoming the joint-international goalscorer of all time.
Coming into Portugal’s final Euro 2020 group game against world champions France, it appeared unlikely that Ronaldo would be able to draw level with the record before the knockout rounds.
Besides, for all the teams that Ronaldo has battered and bruised across his international career, the 36-year-old came into the clash without a single goal against France to his name.
But from the moment that Hungary took a shock lead over Germany courtesy of Ádám Szalai’s header, you got the feeling that anything could happen during the final Group F fixtures.
It was an inkling that was nothing short of spot on with the first-half between France and Portugal being defined by two penalties converted by Ronaldo and Karim Benzema respectively.
Portugal won their spot-kick when Hugo Lloris accidentally struck Danilo with an attempted punched clearance and Ronaldo showed no mistake from 12 yards, selling the goalkeeper the wrong way.
And that’s exactly the manner through which Ronaldo joined Daei at the top of the footballing throne, benefitting from a handball decision against France to earn himself another spot kick.
It was a pivotal moment for Portugal’s hopes of survival in Euro 2020 with the decision coming just a few minutes after Benzema had put 2-1 up by running on to a stunning assist from Paul Pogba.
