UAE BARQ برق الإمارات – نبضك
Cristiano Ronaldo’s 58th career hat-trick helped Portugal cruise to a 5-0 home win over Luxembourg in World Cup qualification Group A on Tuesday.
With the treble, Ronaldo became the first man to achieve 10 international hat-tricks, bringing his total to 115 international goals from 182 caps, extending his lead as the all-time leading men’s international goalscorer.
With a game in hand and a stronger goal differential, Portugal is a point behind leaders Serbia, who moved to 17 points with a 3-1 home win over Azerbaijan.
Within the first 18 minutes, Portugal had the game all but won. Ronaldo scored twice from the penalty spot before his Manchester United teammate Bruno Fernandes added a third after Bernardo Silva’s excellent work.
The striker then missed two golden chances either side of the halftime as he looked for a third, before Anthony Moris denied him a magnificent hat-trick goal with an acrobatic overhead kick.
With just over 20 minutes remaining, Portugal’s fourth goal came from midfielder Joao Palhinha, who headed in from the resulting corner.
As the hosts pushed forward, Ronaldo was unstoppable, scoring three minutes from time with a close-range header.
Fernando Santos’ Portugal team will travel to Ireland next month before hosting Serbia in a potentially winner-take-all match to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
India Today
