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Cristiano Ronaldo has once again shown that when the going gets tough, the tough get going by scoring an incredible clutch goal to complete his hat-trick and with that a valuable point for his country.
Ronaldo’s hat-trick against one of the tournament’s favourites, Spain, doubled his goal tally at the FIFA World Cup. His first goal of the night made him only the fourth player in history to score in four consecutive World Cups after Pele, Uwe Seeler, and Miroslav Klose.
Incredibly, Ronaldo’s third goal against Spain was the fifth goal scored in or after the 88th minute in what is proving to be an exciting World Cup so far.
In addition, Ronaldo’s goal which made the score 3-3 was his first goal from a direct free kick in a finals tournament in 45 attempts (World Cup and Euro combined) and what a moment to score it. He also became the third Portuguese player to score a hat-trick for the country at a World Cup after Eusebio (1966) and Pauleta (2002).
The Portuguese captain reached a few milestones and broke several records after completing his hat-trick and here are five of them:
#5 Scored his 51st career hat-trick
The hat-trick against Spain was Ronaldo’s 51st career hat-trick (club and country) and believe it or not, it was also the 51st hat-trick scored in World Cup history. Talk about being meant to be?
This was Ronaldo’s sixth hat-trick for Portugal with the previous five coming against Northern Ireland, Sweden, Armenia, Andorra and Faroe Islands. Against Andorra, Ronaldo scored four goals in an eventual 6-0 victory.
All of his previous hat-tricks were in the qualifying phase of a major tournament. The one against Armenia was during the qualifying stage of Euro 2016 and the remaining four in the qualifying phase of the 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The hat-trick against Spain is his first at the finals of an international tournament and definitely the one he will cherish the most given the occasion and the opposition.
The breakdown of his 51 career hat-tricks is as follows - 44 for Real Madrid, 6 for Portugal and 1 for Manchester United.
#4 He is now the 2nd highest goalscorer ever in international football
Going into the World Cup, Ronaldo was the highest goalscorer at the international stage among all active players with a lead of 17 over nearest rivals Sunil Chhetri and Lionel Messi.
Not only has he extended that lead to 20 (at least temporarily), he has gone level with Ferenc Puskás as the second highest goalscorer ever in the history of football. However, Ronaldo’s 84 goals have come in 151 games while Puskas scored his 84 in just 89 games. Nevertheless, Ronaldo can surely take a clear lead with at least two more games against Morocco and Iran left in this World Cup.
Ali Daei of Iran holds the all-time record with 109 goals in 149 games. Don’t be surprised if Ronaldo surpasses that tally before he retires.
In addition, it was Ronaldo’s 151st game for Portugal which takes him to 20th in the list of most capped players at the international level surpassing Lothar Matthäus (150).
#3 He becomes the first player in World Cup history to score a hat-trick against Spain
When Spain won the World Cup in 2010, they only conceded 2 goals during the entire tournament and both were in the group stage. After only one game in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, they have crossed that tally thanks to Ronaldo’s hat-trick.
Ronaldo’s hat-trick is not only the first hat-trick of the WC 2018, it is also the first hat-trick scored against Spain at the FIFA World Cup.
This was a repeat of a similar record achieved by Thomas Muller four years ago when he became the first and so far the only player to score a World Cup hat-trick against Portugal.
In the history of the World Cup, most hat-tricks have been scored against South Korea (4), followed by West Germany (3), Belgium (3) and Poland (3). There have also been two hat-tricks against Brazil.
#2 Oldest ever player to score a World Cup hat-trick
Ronaldo’s hat-trick was the first of the WC 2018, the 51st in the history of the tournament and also made him the oldest player to score a hat-trick at the FIFA World Cup.
Sometimes it is hard to comprehend the fact that Ronaldo is 33 because there doesn’t seem to be any dip in his performance level whatsoever and whenever questions are raised about his ability to perform at the highest level during a dry patch, he responds with a sumptuous performance.
At 33 years and 131 days, Ronaldo became the oldest goalscorer at a World Cup by comfortably beating the previous record held by Rob Rensenbrink of Netherlands who at 30 years and 336 days, scored a hat-trick against Iran at the 1978 FIFA World Cup.
#1 The first player to score in 9 consecutive international tournaments
Contrary to most updates, Ronaldo has scored in his 9th consecutive international tournament, not his 8th. Either way, it is still a record.
Ronaldo’s first two goals for Portugal were at the UEFA Euro 2004 which was also his first major international tournament. He scored one each against Greece and Netherlands in that tournament.
At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he opened his World Cup tally by scoring one against Iran and at the Euro 2008, he scored one goal against the Czech Republic. At the 2010 FIFA World Cup also, Ronaldo managed just one goal with that one coming against North Korea in a 7-0 rout.
At Euro 2012, he scored three goals with two coming against the Netherlands in a crucial group stage game. His third one came against the Czech Republic in a 1-0 win in the quarterfinal.
Ronaldo’s only goal at the 2014 FIFA World Cup was the winning goal against Ghana in the group stage. At Euro 2016, Ronaldo scored three more goals which made him the joint highest goalscorer in the tournament’s history.
He also scored two goals at last year’s Confederations Cup with one each against Russia and New Zealand.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup is thus the 9th consecutive international tournament at which Ronaldo has scored taking his tally in such competitions to 17 goals!
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